The acquisition of speaking fundamental frequency (F0) features in Cantonese and English by simultaneous bilingual children

Abstract This exploratory study conducted an acoustic analysis of conversational speech produced by three-year-old children who are bilingual in Cantonese and English, as well as of children who are monolingual in one of those languages. Three fundamental frequency features of speech (mean F0, pitch sigma, and F0 range) were measured and compared between the bilingual and monolingual children, as well as within the bilingual children’s two languages. The results demonstrate significant individual variations. Some of the bilingual children exhibited differential F0 features in both languages, while others did not. Language dominance also emerges. In their dominant language Cantonese, the bilingual children produced the F0 patterns the same way as monolingual Cantonese children, whereas in their nondominant language English, the F0 features were different from those of monolingual English children. The findings suggest that three-year-old bilingual children have started developing distinct prosodic patterns for their two languages. However, achieving full command of prosody in both languages remains a prolonged process.