Towards a Typology of Word-initial Consonant Clusters: Evidence from the Acquisition of Greek

In this paper, I study the production of consonant clusters by Greek children and examine the consequences of the acquisition data for phonological theory, with particular emphasis on the word-initial position. Using a non-word repetition test, I tested the order of acquisition of word-initial and word-medial s+obstruent (sT), obstruent-obstruent (TT) and obstruent-sonorant (TR) clusters in 59 children. The results provide evidence against any analysis that assigns identical status to word-initial sT and word-initial TT, such as models of extrasyllabicity, and lend support to an alternative analysis of the beginning of the word, based on Lowenstamm's (1999) initial ON hypothesis and CVCV theory (Scheer 2004).