Production of pronoun gender by children acquiring Russian as a minority language: comparison with the effects of developmental language disorder

This paper studies the acquisition of Russian pronominal gender by Dutch-Russian simultaneous bilinguals (4;3-7;11) growing up in Netherlands. The performance bilingual group is compared to that age-matched monolinguals with and without developmental language disorder (DLD). We hypothesize reduced exposure toRussian minority-language context may lead delays development, comparable problems attested DLD (in this case due intake). results a narrative elicitation task demonstrate both monolingual groups performed at ceiling from age 4 onwards. Monolingual children were as accurate using their unimpaired peers fromthe earliest ages studied, which supports processing accounts taking morphological richness target into account. In contrast, 4-year-old around chance level. improved reached level only 7. suggest input has more impact on theacquisition morphologically rich language, whereas possible effects are no longer visible after 3.