Abstract

This study investigates the developmental trajectory of voiceless fricatives (/f, s, ʃ/) in Québec French-speaking children aged 2;5 to 4;5 years, utilizing spectral moment analysis. 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. Narrow phonetic transcription and acoustic analysis were performed for target fricative speech to examine the spectral differences in the child's production of these sounds. Some spectral moments reveal 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 like the labiodental contrast. In contrast, accurate production of alveolar and postalveolar fricatives requires more time. The postalveolar voiceless fricative seem more intricate to articulate than the alveolar, attributed to the challenge of positioning the tongue accurately for the proper constriction point.