Abstract
This paper provides an overview of the research on the acquisition of phonology and prosody from the viewpoint of language universals. By way of introduction, I first sketch the traditional but still prevailing hypotheses proposed by Roman Jakobson six decades ago and attempt to evaluate these hypotheses in light of empirical data concerning, in particular, the acquisition of vowels, consonants and syllable structure. I then discuss the acquisition of prosody with main emphasis on that of the mora and the prosodic structure of words in Japanese. I will also point out in passing several interesting questions that remain unsolved.
