Is There Compensatory Vowel Lengthening in the Language Acquisition of a Child with a Cochlear Implant?

Compensatory vowel lengthening (CVL) is found in both adult and children's language. CVL is a process where the loss of a segment is compensated elsewhere by lengthening. It occurs mostly in languages with phonemic vowel length (de Chene and Anderson 1979). We examine CVL in the acquisition of Israeli Hebrew (IH), a language without phonemic vowel length, in a child with a cochlear implant (CI). Preliminary findings reveal: (1) a preference for the vowel /a/; (2) longer vowel duration before: (a) sonorant codas than obstruent codas; and (b) deleted sonorant codas than before preserved sonorant codas and open syllables. There is no significant difference in vowel duration before preserved and deleted obstruent codas and open syllables. We hypothesize that CVL appears in IH-speaking children but in sonorant codas only. The findings are discussed in terms of the representation of CVL in children's grammars as well as auditory deprivation, which may affect auditory perception and motor coordination.