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In non\u2010tone languages, a consonant bias emerges early in development in Romance languages (e.g., French) but later in Germanic languages (e.g., English), while evidence from Asian tone languages (Mandarin, Cantonese) shows a reverse vowel bias. The V\u2010bias in tone languages has been linked to the presence of lexical tones\u2014mainly carried by vowels\u2014which may increase vowel prominence. The present study tests the hypothesis that a V\u2010bias is more generally found in tone languages by examining infants learning an understudied African tone language, Akan (Kwa, Niger\u2010Congo). More specifically, we tested Akan\u2010learning multilingual infants (11\u201314 months) in Ghana (Sub\u2010Saharan Africa) in a wordform recognition task, using a central fixation procedure. After establishing that these infants preferred familiar Akan words over pseudowords (Experiment 1), Experiment 2 assessed whether one\u2010feature consonant or vowel mispronunciations of these words would differentially block recognition, indicative of a V\u2010bias. Infants showed comparable sensitivity to consonant and vowel mispronunciations, failing to establish a bias in these infants. Both findings were not modulated by age and relative exposure to Akan (and also relative exposure to tone languages in Experiment 2). Our findings add to existing evidence that early lexical processing is language\u2010specific. They also suggest that the emergence of a V\u2010bias in tone languages may depend on tone complexity and developmental age.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1111\/desc.70253","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,7]],"date-time":"2026-07-07T07:40:03Z","timestamp":1783410003000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Recognition of Familiar Wordforms and Phonological Variation in Akan by Multilingual Infants Learning African Tone Languages in Ghana"],"prefix":"10.1111","volume":"29","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0859-9826","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Paul Okyere","family":"Omane","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Language and Cognition Team, Integrative Neuroscience and Cognition Center CNRS\u2013Universit\u00e9 Paris Cit\u00e9  Paris France"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1329-9411","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Reginald Akuoko","family":"Duah","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Linguistics University of Ghana  Legon Ghana"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4378-3661","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Thierry","family":"Nazzi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Language and Cognition Team, Integrative Neuroscience and Cognition Center CNRS\u2013Universit\u00e9 Paris Cit\u00e9  Paris France"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"311","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,7]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_2_15_2_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/15248372.2023.2231083"},{"key":"e_1_2_15_3_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.18637\/jss.v067.i01"},{"key":"e_1_2_15_4_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.1205413109"},{"key":"e_1_2_15_5_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2016.00210"},{"key":"e_1_2_15_6_1","unstructured":"Boersma P. andD.Weenink.2023.\u201cPraat: doing phonetics by computer [Computer program]\u201d. 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