Linguistics Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Linguistics, including details on human language, phonetics, syntax, phonology.

Phonemic fluency in Portuguese-speaking subjects in Brazil: ranking of letters.

Senhorini MC, Amaro Júnior E, de Mello Ayres A, de Simone A, Busatto GF

Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Sao Paulo, Brasil.

Phonological verbal fluency studies in English most commonly employ the letters F-A-S as stimuli. We assessed the production of words with these and 14 other letters in Portuguese-speaking healthy subjects (n = 74). The letters F-A-S were ranked among the easiest to produce words in one minute, which is consistent with the findings of studies with English-speaking subjects. There were differences in the overall ranking of letters depending on whether the total word number or the latency between words were considered. Our findings provide a databank of phonological verbal fluency performance using different stimuli in Portuguese, and demonstrate that the ranking of the letters F-A-S is comparable between the English and Portuguese languages in terms of the level of difficulty to produce words, when the task is used in its traditional format.

Published 14 July 2006 in J Clin Exp Neuropsychol, 28(7): 1191-200.
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