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The mechanisms that allow for both language-specific and universal constraints in language development are not fully understood. According to the rhythm detection hypothesis, sensitivity to rhythm is the underlying mechanism that is fundamental to language development. Support from a number of Western languages, as well as Mandarin, has led to the proposal that rhythm detection may provide a language-universal account of language development. However, claims of universality may be premature because most research has addressed reading (rather than language) development, only a small number of languages have been investigated, and pitch is a better predictor of reading than rhythm in Mandarin children. Therefore, we examined language development using a narrative story-retelling task in children who speak Cantonese (a more complex tone inventory than Mandarin) and also assessed temporal and pitch-based auditory abilities to consider whether temporal processing drives development in a tone language. Both temporal and pitch abilities correlated with language development, but only pitch explained unique variance in language after age. The findings support the role of basic auditory processing mechanisms in language development, but they extend beyond the rhythm detection hypothesis by demonstrating that the fundamental cues for development are dependent on the specific processing demands of each language, rather than being universal.
