Toddlers’ Processing of Phonological Alternations: Early Compensation for Assimilation in English and French

<jats:p>Using a picture pointing task, this study examines toddlers’ processing of phonological alternations that trigger sound changes in connected speech. Three experiments investigate whether 2;5‐ to 3‐year‐old children take into account assimilations—processes by which phonological features of one sound spread to adjacent sounds—for the purpose of word recognition (e.g., in English, <jats:italic>ten pounds</jats:italic> can be produced as <jats:italic>te[mp]ounds</jats:italic>). English toddlers (<jats:italic>n </jats:italic>=<jats:italic> </jats:italic>18) show sensitivity to native place assimilations during lexical access in Experiment 1. Likewise, French toddlers (<jats:italic>n </jats:italic>=<jats:italic> </jats:italic>27) compensate for French voicing assimilations in Experiment 2. However, French toddlers (<jats:italic>n </jats:italic>=<jats:italic> </jats:italic>27) do not take into account a hypothetical non‐native place assimilation rule in Experiment 3, suggesting that compensation for assimilation is already language specific.</jats:p>