The development of phonetic complexity in Urdu-speaking children
Background: The “production difficulty of different speech sounds, syllables, and words” can be referred to as phonetic complexity (Jakielski, 2022, p. 20). The Index of Phonetic Complexity (IPC), originally developed for English, was adapted to Urdu (IPC-Ur; Ambreen, 2023). This tool is based on speech sound acquisition patterns and assigns points for the articulatory characteristics that are acquired late.
Aim: This study examines the development of phonetic complexity in Urdu-speaking children.
Method/approach: The University of Hong Kong Human Research Ethics Committee (EA2005008) approved this study. Prior to data collection, all participants and their parents/guardians received project information sheets, and informed consent or assent was obtained. Data were collected from 208 Urdu-speaking children (aged 2;7 to 6;0) in Pakistan using the Urdu Speech Assessment Test (USAT). Samples were transcribed in Phon software and analysed for complexity. P-IPC-Ur scores quantified developmental patterns of phonetic complexity (independent analyses), while the IPC-Ur ratio compared child productions to adult targets (relational analyses).
Results/findings: The IPC-Ur, like its English counterpart, uses eight factors to assign points based on word shape, length, segment composition, and variegation. Overall, P-IPC-Ur scores increased gradually with age. Varied developmental patterns were seen among the individual IPC-Ur. The IPC-Ur ratio showed that the child productions were less complex than target productions, and the difference between child vs. target productions decreased with age.
Conclusion: This study demonstrates the clinical and theoretical utility of the IPC-Ur as a robust tool for quantifying phonetic complexity in Urdu-speaking children. The findings reveal age-related progression, with distinct developmental trajectories across individual articulatory factors and a narrowing gap between child and adult-like productions. By integrating independent (P-IPC-Ur) and relational (IPC-Ur ratio) analyses, this work advances crosslinguistic understanding of speech sound acquisition and offers a framework for identifying atypical patterns in multilingual populations.
Implications for children and families: Helps explore phonetic development in Urdu, supporting earlier guidance and more targeted support for families.
Implications for practitioners: The IPC-Ur provides a developmentally sensitive way to quantify phonetic complexity in Urdu, using both independent growth and child-adult comparison to inform assessment and intervention planning.
Funding: This work was supported by the General Research Fund from the University Research Council, granted to the second author (Project No. 17614717).
Keywords: phonetic complexity, Urdu, speech sound acquisition
This presentation relates to the following United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: