The syllabic development of Portuguese by twin children: the phonological system as a complex system

• Main Authors: Maria de Fátima de Almeida Baia, Vanessa Cordeiro de Souza Mattos, Jéssica Caroline Sousa Aguiar
• Format: Article
• Language: Portuguese
• Published: Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro 2018-12-01
• Series: Revista Linguística
• Subjects: Sistemas Adaptativos Complexos; gêmeos; desenvolvimento silábico.
• Online Access: https://revistas.ufrj.br/index.php/rl/article/view/21415

In this study, we investigate the development of syllabic structure of two dizygotic twins at the age of 1 to 2 years. After analyzing the data, we noticed variability between the syllabic productions of the two children. However, as our analysis shows, the differences found in the path of syllabic development were apparent. Thus, unlike the literature on the phonological development of twins (Bakker, 1987; Dodd & McEvoy, 1994; Magford-Bevan, 2000; Smith, 2011), our results do not support the claim that twin speech would present “phonological delay.” According to the Complexity perspective, we interpret the variability found in the data of the two children as expected and characteristic of the language development as it has been reported by studies on language development by twins (CHAN; LOWIE; De BOT, 2014) and by non-twins (SZREDER, 2012; BAIA, 2013).