International Journal of English Linguistics; Vol. 9, No. 1; 2019 ISSN 1923-869X E-ISSN 1923-8703 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education 229 Sound Shift and Metathesis in Three Pre-School Nasiriya Iraqi Arabic Children: A Case Study Mohammed Jasim Betti 1 & Zainab Kadim Igaab 1 1 Dept. of English, College of Education for Humanities, University of Thiqar, Iraq Correspondence: Mohammed Jasim Betti, Dept. of English, College of Education for Humanities, University of Thiqar, Iraq. E-mail: alseady2@gmail.com and zainabigaab@yahoo.com Received: October 3, 2018 Accepted: November 29, 2018 Online Published: December 29, 2018 doi:10.5539/ijel.v9n1p229 URL: https://doi.org/10.5539/ijel.v9n1p229 Abstract This study is a case study which describes the speech of three pre-school Nasiriya Iraqi Arabic children. The data of this study are collected through tape-recording them. Through the analysis, it is concluded that the phonetic processes which exist in the informants’ speech include assimilation, elision, gemination, nasalization and tafxiim and the main ones are sound shift and metathesis. It has been noted that the study informants pronounce some consonants which are difficult to be pronounced by other children living in the same city; those consonants are either regularly shifted to in the production of other consonants or as part of ordinary words containing such sounds. Sometimes, more than one process is available in the production of some words. The consonantal changes existing in the informants’ speech are many compared with the vocalic ones which are very few. Keywords: phonetic processes, pre-school children, Nasiriya Iraqi Arabic 1. Introduction Nasiriya is a city in Iraq which is located along the banks of the Euphrates River. It is one of the southern cities in Iraq and it is about 225 miles (370 km) southeast of Baghdad. It is situated near the ruins of the ancient city of Ur. It is regarded as the centre of the Thi-Qar governorate. The aim of the study is to describe the speech of three preschool children and the characteristic processes accompanying their speech like sound shift, metathesis, elision, assimilation, gemination, nasalization, and tafxiim. The study hypothesizes the following: a. Sound shift and metathesis mainly exist in most Nasiriya Iraqi consonants of the informants. b. The secondary processes occurring in the informants’ speech include elision, assimilation, gemination, tafxiim, and nasalization. This study is limited to investigate the speech of three Nasiriya Iraqi Arabic pre-school children. This description includes both vocalic and consonantal segments. In analyzing the speech of the two authors’ children, we discover that their speech is characteristic of sound shift and other linguistic processes and we assume that they follow some phonetic rules which are specific to them and we tried to list those rules in tables. 2. Literature Review 2.1 Linguistic Description of Acquisition Children of 1-2 years produce the first word combination. Then simple and complex sentences are produced when they become 4-6 years old. Any study concerning the child’s language acquisition includes a description and then an explanation for the sound segments produced by the children. The explanation is the uneasy step to deal with because it involves dealing with children not adults. According to Ingram (1987, p. 10), “The value of dairy studies is enormous in providing a database for the field. In some cases, the data are rich to provide the basis for a study and at other cases, the data may be supplemented in that it is used in conjunction with newly collected data to substantiate a point”.