Child phoneme errors are not substitutions

Abstract

In this paper, I argue there is no reliable evidence for the concept of a “substitution” error. First, I review research on child phonemic errors, including stopping, word-final devoicing, word-initial devoicing, fronting, and gliding. There are several general trends that can be seen in the data. First, the phonological analyses rely exclusively on transcription-based data. Second, phonetic analyses have repeatedly found that apparent cases of phoneme substitutions actually involve covert contrasts, or measurable phonetic differences in the quality of two productions that are indistinguishable to the adult ear. This leads to an apparent confound in the phonological literature—cases of substitutions appear to be based solely on what adult listeners heard. I will take the strong and possibly equivocal position that substitutions are perceptual illusions and that the concept should be discarded.