Tonal word accents produced by Swedish 18 - and 24 - month - olds

F0 measurements were made of disyllabic words produced by several Swedish and American English 18and 24-month-olds. The Swedish 24and 18-monthers produced accent contours that were similar in shape and timing to those found in adult speech. The Swedish 18monthers, however, produced very few words with the acute accent. It is concluded that most Swedish children have acquired a productive command of the word accent contrast by 24 years of age and that, at 18 months, most children display clear tonal ambient-language effects. The influence of the ambient language is evident in view of the F0 contours produced by the American English children whose timing of F0 events tended to be intermediate between the Swedish grave and acute contours. The relative consistency with which grave accent contours were produced by the Swedish 18-monthers suggest that some children are influenced by the ambient language well before that age.