Spectral Moments of Voiceless Fricative Consonants in French-speaking Preschool-age Children

Abstract This study utilizes spectral moment analysis to investigate the developmental trajectory of voiceless fricatives (/f, s, ʃ/) in Québec French-speaking children 2.5 to 4.5 years of age. Participants with typical development, no history of hearing loss, and no language acquisition issues were audio- and video-recorded individually during a picture-naming task. A narrow phonetic transcription and an acoustic analysis were performed for target fricative speech to examine the spectral differences in the child's production of these sounds. Some spectral moments revealed developmental changes in French-speaking children across age groups and genders. Results align with the milestones described for French phonological development, highlighting the early emergence of articulatory contrasts such as labiodental contrast. Conversely, accurate production of alveolar and postalveolar fricatives requires more time. Postalveolar voiceless fricatives seem more intricate to articulate than alveolar voiceless fricatives, which is attributed to the challenge of positioning the tongue accurately for the proper constriction point.