The interface between phonetic and lexical abilities in early Cantonese language development

Data from the Cantonese Communicative Development Inventory (CCDI) is used to review the phonological preferences of younger (16-22 months) and older (23-30 month) groups of children in the lexical items they are reported to be able to say. Analogous results to those found for English emerge from the Cantonese data: the younger group display selectivity in the initial consonants of words they say, and their preferences accord with developmental tendencies in Cantonese phonology. From children whose scores fell below the tenth percentile of the CCDI, a subset were followed up 1 year later and their linguistic progress evaluated. Only a proportion of these children were below still below the tenth percentile for vocabulary at follow-up. Their lexical immaturities were accompanied by limited phonetic abilities. The implications of the findings are discussed.