Articulation errors of consonants among punjabi children

Abstract

Communication involves exchange of information between two or more organisms. All living organisms communicate in one way or the other. However, it is the humans who have the privilege of using the system of arbitrary symbols. Most of the people are able to comprehend and express their messages through a common code system. Auditory-vocal form of expressing and comprehending languages is the most widely utilized mode, which is commonly referred to as ‘Speech’. A person with an articulation problem is one whose production of phoneme varies too widely from the average values. When he attempts to utter a standard phoneme, he makes it so differently that it sounds too different. This difference interferes with communication (Van Riper, 1984). Punjabi (also written as Panjabi) is a member of the Indo- Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family. Eastern Punjabi is spoken as a first language primarily in the State of Indian Punjab by 27 million people (Ethnologue). We need to develop a specific tool to access the prevalence of such errors/defects among children and adult population.