Presentation - ECV2024-542

Children’s speech development: Japanese

Mitsuhiko OTA, University of Edinburgh, UK (mits@ling.ed.ac.uk)
Isao UEDA, Nagoya University of Foreign Studies, Osaka University, Japan (ueda@nufs.ac.jp)

Japanese is spoken primarily in Japan and there are many varieties, including those spoken around Tokyo, Kyoto/Osaka, Tohoku and Okinawa. Japanese has 15 consonants, five short vowels, five long vowels, and seven consonant clusters. It is characterized by durational contrasts in both consonants and vowels and a pitch accent system. Japanese uses mora as a unit of metaphonological organization and has a complex writing system that includes two sets of syllabaries (hiragana and katakana) and a large number of kanji characters borrowed from Chinese. There are many studies of Japanese children’s speech development of consonants and vowels, pitch accent, and phonological awareness. Clinical research has focused on the assessment and treatment of speech sound disorders, dysarthria, cleft lip/palate and stuttering. Common speech assessments include Shinteiban Kotoba no Tesuto Ehon [Revised word test picture book], Kōon Hattatsu Yosoku Kensa [Articulation development prognosis test], and Kōon Kensahō [Articulation test method], and one of the most commonly used intervention is Van Riper and Erickson’s (1996) traditional articulation therapy.

Key words:
Japanese, multilingual, communication, speech, language, children’s development, interdisciplinary, international communities, assessment, intervention

Book chapter:
Ota, M., & Ueda, I. (2025). Japanese speech development. In S. McLeod (Ed.). The Oxford handbook of speech development in languages of the world. Oxford University Press.

Language overview presentation:

This presentation relates to the following United Nations Sustainable Development Goals:

Scroll to Top