Phonological Simplification Strategies in Oromo-Speaking Children: A Perspective from Optimality Theory

The present study aimed at investigating the developmental phonological simplification methods in the normally developing Oromo speaking three year olds. Hence, a total of sixteen children from western Oromo speakers were selected. The collected speech samples were transcribed according to IPA. The study utilized Optimality Theory (OT) in investigating the creative adaptations in the speech of the participants. The most frequently encountered strategy was systematic replacement, where markedness outranks faithfulness. The patterns were largely preoccupied with sound preference replacements. Some of these patterns were found to be language-specific, while others declared universality. Full assimilation in clusters was found to be language-specific, but lateralisation, fronting, backing, devoicing, and final consonant deletion were found to be universal patterns across languages. The current research is interested in the intricate interaction of strategies of phonological simplification in the early speech development of Oromo-speaking children and presents information on language-specific as well as universal patterns.