The role of writing acquisition in the representation of Brazilian Portuguese syllabic coda: from child to adult phonology

Abstract

The acquisition of writing has been considered an important source of change in the learner’s mind/brain, especially in the way language is processed. There are several aspects of this kind of change that have been studied; however, few works have addressed changes specifically in phonological representation. This article seeks to provide that discussion, focusing on the representation of the syllabic coda in Brazilian Portuguese. To this end, we analyze spelling data from 166 Brazilian monolingual children, who study in the first four years of Elementary School. The results show that children have trouble when spelling the nasal and lateral consonants more than the fricative and the rhotic in this syllabic position. This is mainly attributed to an asymmetry between child and adult phonology, which is reflected in the orthographic system. Due to this conflict, we argue that the representation of the coda may changed in the phonological system of Brazilian children, resulting in its alignment of the coda with the target grammar.