Kids do in fact have an easier time pronouncing syllables they hear about them. And from about age 3 it starts going downhill. At 9 it’s near impossible to learn to speak a new language without accent.
That’s true, but also, speech-motor control develops throughout childhood, and one of the last things children develop is consonant clusters. This means words like (sp)a(gh)etti are harder for most children to say than, for example, “banana”, regardless of their language. Children tend to replace difficult clusters with one of their sounds, and when there’s more than one difficult cluster in a word, sometimes the other sound of one gets transposed in place of the other.
I agree, but things like “Sp”, is that common in italian? I’m not sure but I’m thinking not. It’s interesting and now I need someone with an Italian toddler to chip in.
I’ve heard that it’s until 12~14, depending on exposure.
I know people who moved to Canada from countries with little exposure at or after the age of 9 who still speak their mother tongue at home, and yet have no accent at all when speaking English. A very linguistically different language from English, at that.
Kids do in fact have an easier time pronouncing syllables they hear about them. And from about age 3 it starts going downhill. At 9 it’s near impossible to learn to speak a new language without accent.
That’s true, but also, speech-motor control develops throughout childhood, and one of the last things children develop is consonant clusters. This means words like (sp)a(gh)etti are harder for most children to say than, for example, “banana”, regardless of their language. Children tend to replace difficult clusters with one of their sounds, and when there’s more than one difficult cluster in a word, sometimes the other sound of one gets transposed in place of the other.
I agree, but things like “Sp”, is that common in italian? I’m not sure but I’m thinking not. It’s interesting and now I need someone with an Italian toddler to chip in.
I’ve heard that it’s until 12~14, depending on exposure.
I know people who moved to Canada from countries with little exposure at or after the age of 9 who still speak their mother tongue at home, and yet have no accent at all when speaking English. A very linguistically different language from English, at that.