摘要：This study investigates the acquisition of vowel harmony by Finnish children. In
Finnish, there are five front vowels (/i/, /e/, /y/, /ø/, /æ/) and three back vowels (/u/, /o/,
/a/). In Finnish vowel harmony (FVH), back vowels (/u/ /o/ /a/) and front vowels (/y/ /ø/
/æ/) cannot occur together within a native and non-colloquial word, unless it is a
compound. Phonologically ‘neutral’ unrounded front vowels (/i/ /e/) can occur with all
vowels in a word, whereas front rounded vowels (/y/, /ø/) can occur with front vowels
only. It was hypothesized that phonological status of the five front vowels regarding
FVH may cause difficulty in the acquisition of FVH. The data of this study were words
produced by 196 Finnish children at age 2;6. The data showed that most of Finnish 2;6-
year-olds’ productions do not violate FVH, suggesting early mastery of FVH. When
there were errors in children’s productions, they were mostly substitutions of back
vowels for the front rounded vowels.
