On the L1 development of final consonant clusters in Cairene Arabic

This study presents data on the first language development of final consonant cluster acquisition in Cairene Arabic. We compare the production of final consonant clusters of two siblings (an older brother and a younger sister) acquiring Cairene Arabic in a monolingual setting when both were 2 years, 8 months (2;8). Since one child had more target-appropriate clusters than the other at that age, we get a glimpse of the developmental path of final consonant cluster acquisition in Cairene Arabic. Our findings include that pharyngeal-initial final clusters are acquired early and that gemination is the common “repair” strategy for clusters not yet acquired. We conclude by relating our findings to theories regarding the nature of first language phonological acquisition.