Abstract:
Phonological inventories aid in the assessment and determination of children’s
phonological abilities. They should be language specific due to difference in language
sound systems. However, Speech–Language Therapists in Kenya use English
Phonological inventories to assess Kiswahili sounds, syllable structures and
phonological processes of bilingual children. This leaves phonological aspects, such
as sounds, peculiar to Kiswahili, which is the second most spoken language,
unaccounted for. Therefore, this study set out to investigate Kiswahili consonant
sounds, syllable structures and phonological processes with the aim of developing a
Kiswahili Phonological inventory for the Kenyan children aged from 3-6. The specific
objectives were: to investigate if there is variation in Kiswahili sounds among children
aged from 3-6 is caused by frequentness of mother tongue use, with the aim of
developing a phonological inventory; to describe the differences in Kiswahili syllable
structures present among boys and girls aged from 3-6 so as to develop a phonological
inventory; and to describe Kiswahili phonological processes present among children
aged from 3-6 with the aim of developing a phonological inventory. The study was
guided by theoretical principles from distinctive features theory. A cross-sectional
survey design was used to analyse Kiswahili phonological features of 240 out of the
targeted 2027 pre-school children, sampled using the Yamane Model and a two-stage
sampling technique. Questionnaire and interview schedule supplemented by pictures
were used to collect data. Preliminary analysis revealed that firstly /p, b, t, d, h, k, g, f,
v, l, r. m, n, s, z. w, y, ʤ ɲ, ʃ/ had been acquired by age 3.6. secondly, CV, CCV, CVV,
CVCVV, CVCVCV, CCVCVCV, CVCV, CVCCVCV, VCVCV, CVCVCV syllable
structures were consistent among all age groups while phonological process which
included addition, deletion and substitution, reduced as age increased. Confirmatory
findings revealed that there was no statistically significant variation in mean scores of
children’s frequency in usage of mother tongue. This implied that there was no variation
in Kiswahili sounds as a result of frequentness of L1 usage. F ( 4 , 217 ) 2 . 044 ; p . 05 .
Only 0.3% of the variance in Kiswahili sounds could be explained by how frequently
the children spoke L1; secondly, there was no statistically significant variation in mean
syllable structures among children of different sexes (T (220) = 1.447; p>.05) two tailed
test. However, sex represented a very small size effect as only .09% of the variance in
syllable structures; and there was a statistically significant difference in mean
phonological processes in six different age groups studied ( F ( 5 , 216 ) 8 . 576 ; p . 05 ).In
conclusion, since how frequently a child spoke L1 and sex differences did not cause
variation in the inventory, it can be used to assess Kenyan children regardless of L1 and
sex. The study contributes to recent discussions in research in SLT on the need for
language specific inventories. The findings of this study can be used in designing
curriculum for school children aged from 3-6.