Open Access

Eva Maria Freiberger

• Konsonantencluster stellen eine besondere Herausforderung im Erstspracherwerb dar. Ihre Produktion erfordert die Ausdifferenzierung der natürlichsten Silbenstruktur CV. Für den Erwerb bedeutet dies, dass Kinder lernen müssen, dem Ansatz oder der Koda einer Silbe mehrere Konsonanten zuzuweisen. In der Spracherwerbsforschung nimmt daher die Untersuchung von Konsonantengruppen einen wichtigen Stellenwert ein...
• Based on the theoretical framework of Dressler/Dziubalska-Kołaczyk (2006), this study investigates the morphonotactic hypothesis in three child language corpora of monolingual Austrian German children (age 1;3 to 3;0). The hypothesis predicts that morphology helps in the acquisition of consonant clusters: Morphonotactic clusters stand a better chance of being articulated faithfully than phonotactic clusters because they signal morphological information. While studies on Lithuanian and Polish child language offer evidence for the morphonotactic hypothesis (cf. Kamandulyte 2006, Zydorowicz 2010), the German longitudinal corpora do not show a clear difference between the acquisition of morphonotatic and phonotactic clusters but between initial and medial/final clusters. The finding of no significant morphological impact on cluster acquisition is in line with previous results on older German-speaking children (cf. Korecky-Kröll & Dressler submitted). Finally, the paper discusses a possible effect of language typology on children’s acquisition of consonant clusters.