Question

Having spent his childhood in the Middle East, Parviz did not begin speaking English until he was a teenager. When he pronounces words such as "mother," native English speakers hear a word that sounds more like "mudder." Which of the following is the best explanation for this phenomenon?

a. In Parviz's speech, consonant phonemes carry more information than do vowel phonemes.
b. As an infant, Parviz lost the ability to produce sounds he never heard.
c. The rules for English syntax and semantics differ from what Parviz learned as a child.
d. Non-English languages are typically more telegraphic, affecting Parviz's current speech patterns.
e. Parviz's language acquisition device did not "switch on," so he could produce English phonemes correctly.

Answer 1

b. As an infant, Parviz lost the ability to produce sounds he never heard.

Step-by-step explanation:

Language development starts since the moment we are born, even if we cannot articulate proper words until about 1 year of age.

In terms of language, there's a phenomenon called perceptual narrowing or perceptual reorganization. A new-born can perceive all the speech sounds of any language, however, when the baby is around 6 months old, he starts to lose the ability to tell apart many sounds that aren't used in their native language, this process is called perceptual narrowing or perceptual reorganization.

In this example, Parviz spent his childhood in the Middle East and he started speaking english when he was a teenager. When he pronounces "mother" it sounds more like "mudder", this can be explained by the perceptual narrowing phenomenon in which as a child, Parviz lost the ability to recognize sounds that didn't belong to her native language, and therefore he is not able to pronounce them either. Therefore, the correct answer is b. As an infant, Parviz lost the ability to produce sounds he never heard.