Abstract
Using a natural interactional setting, a quasi-experiment investigated stop consonants in Norwegian infant directed speech (IDS) compared with adult directed speech (ADS) in six mothers interacting with their infants at 10 points throughout six months. Voice onset time (VOT) in voiced and voiceless bilabial, alveolar and velar stops was compared between the two speech types. Results from two repeated measures analysis show longer VOTs in IDS than in ADS for alveolar and velar stops, as well as for /b/, but not for /p/. These results were stable across the six months. This suggests that stops are overspecified in speech to infants from birth until six months, maybe enhancing both auditory and visual aspects of speech in the first six months.
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