Jakobson’s universalist theory and order of acquisition of consonants in Mexican Spanish: A case study

Abstract

The objective of this research was to contrast the results of the CEFI (Questionnaire for the Evaluation of Child Phonology) to elaborate a proposal for a possible acquisition order of the consonant phonemes in Mexican Spanish. Taken as a basis the Jakobson’s universalist theory, the productions of two children aged 2 and 4, were analyzed acoustically to find out the differences and similitudes with this Jacobson proposal. Productions of the 4-year-old child showed no differences with the proposed order while the productions of the 2-year-old child presented some differences in the acquisition order of fricative phonemes regarding to affricate and vibrant consonants.