Abstract

We explored the syllabic and phonetic properties of the words included in the «Primo Vocabolario del Bambino» (Italian version of the MacArthur-Bates CDI), in order to observe their influence on the age of lexical acquisition and the percentage of Italian children (out of 752) producing each word between 18-36 months. The majority of words have two or three syllables, mostly of the CV type. Complexity grows along with both chronological age and vocabulary size. As to manners of articulation, fricatives, liquids, labiodentals increase, while plosives decrease. As to places of articulation, alveolars and postalveolars increase, while bilabials decrease. We compared our data with direct evaluation of Italian children.