Phonological errors and sound changes in Arabic-speaking children

The purpose of this study was to describe articulation/phonological errors and sound changes in a group of normally developing, Arabic-speaking children aged between 2;0 and 4;4. Elicited samples from 50 children were examined to determine the percentages of consonants that were produced in an unacceptable manner (errors) and that were changed from Educated Spoken Arabic, to determine the effect of these sound changes on classes of consonants, and to determine the phonological processes or patterns that would describe these two types of sound changes. Difficulties with emphatic consonants, consonant sequences and /r/ were felt to be due to articulatory difficulty, whereas the early accuracy of back fricatives and /l/ may be due to their high frequency in the language and relatively high functional load.