Natural Phonological Processes in Sistani Persian of Iran (original) (raw)
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Lenition in Persian Phonological System
Research on Humanities and Social Sciences, 2013
This study deals with lenition processes according to the theoretical framework of generative phonology to answer the cited questions: How phonological processes are applied in Persian phonological system as lenition? In other words, how do the data support the application of lenition processes in Persian? In which contexts do lenition processes apply in Persian? Synthetic process typology of phonological processes is investigated according to the phonological pattern of Persian; finally the most frequent lenition processes are selected. To see how these processes are applied in Persian as lenition, Standard Persian and six dialects out of twenty five dialects which show these processes are selected. The data are gathered in field study. Then, each of the lenition processes is probed on the Persian varieties to find the alternatives and underlying forms which are important to decide how the lenition processes are applied; and to find the positions in which lenition processes take place. The collected data support the lenition processes in Persian. The data show that the lenition processes tend to occur in postvocalic, intervocalic and final positions; and the final position has the highest frequency for lenition processes to occur. This support Kenstowichz"s idea that mentions word final is the typical position for lenition.
Syllable structure in Old, Middle and Modern Persian: A contrastive analysis
Iranian Journal of Applied Language Studies, 2015
Evolution of languages has always been of interest to linguists. In this paper we study the natural progress of the syllable structure from Old Persian (O.P) to Middle Persian (Mi.P) and up to the Modern Persian (Mo.P). For this purpose all the words containing consonant sequences are collected from specific sources of each of these languages, and then analysed according to the syllabification principles. Pulgram (1970) distinguishes three principles for this matter which is stated in Hyman (2003:279).The first one, is the maximum open syllable principle, the second, the minimum coda and maximum onset principle and the last one is the irregular coda principle. In addition , to find the syllable structure of the words, phonological rules are also applied. Greenberg (1978) suggests a number of rules specifying the collocation constraint of phonemes and phonological structure of the word, which are: Obligatory Contour Principle (OCP), Sonority Sequencing Principl...
The Investigation of Lenition in Generative Phonology in Sistani Dialect
Asian journal of management sciences & education, 2014
The purpose of this article is to investigate lenition in Sistani dialect in generative phonologyframe. At first the short description of Sistani dialect, Methodology and generative phonology is represented, and then the phonological process lenition in Sistani in comparison with Persian is deal with. For this purpose, all alternation in respect of lenition, in Sistani in comparison with Persian, were extracted then according to some criteria , it is determined which form is underlying representation; for instance, in Sistani, bilabial consonant such as [b] in the coda position of syllable is converted to [f],[v],[w].like ɑb→ ow. According to” Frequency of occurrence, it is proved ɑbrepresentation.
GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies, 2013
This article focuses on the study of geographical variations among the phonological systems of Standard Persian (SP) language, Central Sarawani Balochi (CSB), a dialect of Balochi language and the Sistani dialect (SD) of Persian, based on Optimality Theory (OT) and van Oostendorp"s (2008) approach. SP and SD are linguistically closely related, but SP and CSB are very farther apart. While these language varieties share some similarities in their phonological system, they also have some peculiarities and are spoken in different geographical locations in Iran. Following OT and van Oostendorp"s (2008) approach, the study of syllable structure of SP, CSB and SD supports the fact that the linguistic distance between two dialects is the minimal number of minimal reranking needed to get from one grammar to another. The findings of the present research show the fact that reranking DEP-IO and *COMPLEX ONS constraints supports how the initial clusters are realized in the syllable structure of CSB and SD, but not in SP. In addition, the analysis of the status of [] in the onset position of the syllable structure of SP and SD based on the constraints: DEP-IO, ONSET and MAX-IO indicates that all these language varieties are among languages which typologically do not permit onset-less syllables. Moreover, the data suggests that the linguistic distance between two languages or dialects equals to the geographical distance between them. Further, as to syllable structure, historical considerations should be taken into account. Accordingly, the syllable structure of SD corresponds to the syllable structure of CSB rather than SP, although linguistically SD is closer to SP not CSB.
Phonological Derivations of Synchronic Metathesis in Modern Persian
This study discusses phonological derivations in Modern Persian which result from synchronic metathesis in light of Optimality Theory (OT). Synchronic metathesis to follow the Sonority Sequencing Principle (SSP) is operated by two phonological rules; metathesis of word-final cluster and Sonority-Driven epenthesis. In this context, the first rule blocks the environment for the second. This phonological derivation is known as bleeding which is also a type of phonological derivation of synchronic metathesis that is motivated by the Syllable Contact Law. The first rule, as the metathesis of heterosyllabic consonants, blocks the environment for the second, as in contact anaptyxis. OT Parallelism is capable of accounting for this bleeding as a transparent rule interaction yielded by synchronic metathesis, which is motivated by the Syllable Contact Law as well as the SSP since reference to the intermediate steps between input and output is not necessary. To that end OT Parallelism is capable of accounting for transparency in the bleeding order.
The Structure of Persian Intonation
Proceedings of the Speech Prosody 2008 Conference, 2008
This paper is a detailed investigation of the phonology and phonetics of the intonation of Persian carried out in the framework of the AM theory of intonational phonology ((7), (5)). Based on 2112 utterances read by a total of 8 native speakers, the work, on the one hand, presents a phonological account of the prosodic structure of this language, a structure that consists of the level Accentual Phrase (AP) with the pitch accent (L+)H*, immediately dominated by the level Intonational Phrase (IP), each level being marked by a low or high right boundary tone. This system is less complicated than previous proposals which consider an additional level between IP and AP. On the other hand, this work scrutinizes the phonetic implementation of tones with regard to segments. It is shown that the L of an AP is aligned with the consonant preceding the stressed vowel, and the H with the consonant following this vowel in nuclear APs and with the next vowel in non-nuclear ones. Focused APs have mo...
The Phonology and Phonetics of Prosodic Prominence in Persian
2014
"This dissertation explores the phonological representation and the phonetic realization of prosodic prominence in Persian. It comprises two related parts: the first part addresses prosodic phrasing in Persian sentences, while the second part deals with phonetic correlates of prosodic prominence by reporting conducted production and perception experiments. The phonological part is carried out within the framework of Prosodic Phonology, and aims at determining the prosodic structure of Persian from foot level, up to utterance level. By adopting Optimality Theory, it tries to explain how morphosyntax-phonology interface constraints together with prosodic markedness constraints form the prosodic structure of the language. It begins with foot level and suggests that in languages like Persian which have one non-iterative weight-insensitive edgemost stress per word, a single foot which is edge-aligned with the minimal Phonological Word best explains the prosodic pattern at word level. This part also focuses on prosodic differences between lexical words and weak function words (clitics) and shows that any attempt to describe the prosodic structure of Persian without addressing this crucial difference, will not be able to provide explanation for a wide range of phenomena. This study suggests that proclitics and enclitics behave asymmetrically in Persian: enclitics prosodize as affixal clitics, while proclitics are free clitics. Next, it addresses the problem of weak function words which are not a part of their preceding or following XPs, and demonstrates how the phonological well-formedness constraints determine the direction of cliticization in these XP-external function words. It also deals with the issue of clitic clusters in Persian which was not explored in the previous works. Another contribution of this study is reclassification of so-called exceptionally initial-stressed words. This dissertation also deals with the longstanding problem of Ezafe constructions and by reviewing previous proposals on the prosodic structure of these constructions, based on phonological evidence and phonetic observations suggests that each lexical word in an Ezafe construction maps onto a Phonological Phrase, and the Ezafe morpheme phrases with its preceding material to satisfy the phonological well-formedness constraint ONSET. The prosodic structure of XP-external clitics such as the Ezafe morpheme is explained by adopting a syntax-prosody interface constraint namely MAP-XP, that bans two sister XPs inside a single Phonological Phrase. This study proposes a ranking of OT constraints by which the prosodic structure of Ezafe constructions and other syntactic phrases such as DPs and VPs can be predicted and explained uniformly. It also proposes that the interaction between morphosyntax-phonology interface constraints and prosodic markedness constraints determine prosodic constituents of all levels and their heads, and other constraints require the heads of phonological phrases to be associated with audible accents. The rightmost Phonological Phrase in an Intonational Phrase is the head. This head associates with an accent which is perceived more prominently than the other accents. One further issue explored here is the fact that in lexicalized Ezafe constructions and also in the ones containing given/old information, some words may appear without audible accent. The phonetic difference between final and non-final accents is the subject of the second half of this dissertation. Previous research on Persian has shown that the main acoustic correlate of prosodic prominence is f0. This study reports production and perception experiment results conducted in order to answer the question whether final (nuclear) accents are perceived more prominently than the other ones only because they are not followed by any other accent, or because they are phonetically different from the non-final (pre-nuclear) accents. The results of production experiments reveal that nuclear accented syllables have a lower f0 range, but a longer duration in comparison with pre-nuclear accented ones. Other parameters such as overall intensity, spectral tilt and vowel quality do not differ significantly in the two types of accents. Perception experiments reveal that native listeners can indeed distinguish the two types of accents without having access to the portion of the utterance that follows the final accent. This proves that the two types of accents are phonetically different. Perception tests also show that the difference between the shapes of f0 curves in the two types of accents is the main acoustic parameter that helps the listeners distinguish them from each other. In pre-nuclear accented words, the f0 peak is at the right edge of the metrically strong syllable, and the curve has a rising slope at this point. In these syllables, the peak may even occur on the initial syllable of the following word. However, in the syllables associated with nuclear accents, the f0 peak is located inside the syllable, and the curve has a falling slope at the right edge of the syllable. If the f0 at the right edge of a nuclear accented syllable is manipulated and raised so that the f0 peak is moved to the right edge, the native listeners will perceive the word containing this syllable as a pre-nuclear accented word. This study also shows that duration alone cannot cue the difference between the two types of accents. However, when accompanied by f0 changes, it can help the listeners distinguish the two accents more easily and more efficiently. Downloadable at: http://roa.rutgers.edu/content/article/files/1314\_hosseini\_1.pdf "
Total Assimilation in Persian Phonology: A Modified Contrastive Specification Account
2020
Nowadays the main stream in the most fields of linguistics including phonology is minimalism and redundancy removing, which derives from the principle of the economy of language. The advent of under specification theory in the late 19th century can be considered as the beginning of redundancy removing in the domain of phonology. During recent decades different versions of under specification such as Radical Under specification, Contrastive Specification and Modified Contrastive Specification (MCS) have been presented. Modified Contrastive Specification (MCS), which is the finding of Toronto Phonology School is based on Contrastive Hypothesis in which a contrastive hierarchy is applied to specify the contrastive features. It is believed that only contrastive features are specified in phonological representations and redundant values never exist in underlying representations. This paper aims to present a novel analysis of total assimilation process in terms of the manner of articulati...
The timing of pre-nuclear pitch accents in Persian
Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 2017
This paper examines the phonetic realization of rising pre-nuclear pitch accents in Persian. In a first experiment, the alignment of f0 valleys and peaks in pre-nuclear pitch accents was analyzed in controlled speech materials as a function of the syllable structure (open vs. closed) and vowel type (short vs. long) of the accented syllable. The results revealed that in words with antepenultimate stress, both the L and the H tones are anchored to specific segmental landmarks irrespective of syllable structure or vowel type. In particular, the L is consistently aligned with the onset of the accented syllable, and the H is placed with similar consistency in the vicinity of the first post-accentual vowel. In a second experiment, the variability in the timing and scaling of L valleys and H peaks was examined as a function of the proximity of the word boundary and of the following accent. The results revealed that while the alignment of the L was unaffected by changes in stress conditions...
2016
The purpose of this research is to study the processes of dissimilation and insertion in Sistani Balochi Dialect based on Generative Phonology. A central idea in the theory of Generative Phonology is to find the underlying representation of phonemes according to the phonetic representation. In order to ensure the reliability of the data, a data corpus was collected from 50 SB speakers.The results show that the phonological process of dissimilationoften occurs between two phonemes of /l/ and /r/ because these two sounds belong to the same natural class. In addition, the results show that the process of insertion occurs both in consonants and vowels. Consequently, it causes the change of syllable structure and re-syllabification in SB. Insertion may occur in word-initial, word-medial and word-final positions. keywords: dissimilation; insertion; Generative Phonology; Sistani Balochi