The Investigation of Phonological Changes in the Negative Prefix of Kalhori Kurdish Preceding a Glide: a Serial Optimality Theoretic Account

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Assistant Professor, Department of English Language, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran

Abstract

When the negative prefix of na- is added to Kalhori Kurdish verbal constructions with initial glides, the vowel of the prefix is left intact in certain contexts, and yet in others, undergoes partial or full assimilation of Place features with its following glide. The present study investigates the status of the vowel of this prefix through a serial approach to Optimality Theory. The data of the article was collected through interviews with Kalhori Kurdish speakers as well as the previous research in Kalhori and Sorani dialects. After collecting data and analysing them through Harmonic Serialism, it was revealed that the vowel is left unchanged in open syllables, but it assimilates with the following glide in the features of place of articulation when the vowel and the glide form a closed syllable. This assimilation, however, is partial and only allowed if the vowel and the following glide are not both high

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

Alinezhad, B. & Mirsaeedi, A. (2014). The Phonological Process of Consonant-to-to Consonant Assimilation in Persian: An Acoustic Exploration. Journal of Language Research, 6 (11), 163-186 (In Persian).
Dianat, L. (2016). Assimilation Process in the Lari Language. Journal of Iranian Language Linguistics, 1 (1), 53-72 (In Persian).
Estaji, A. (2007). Vowel Harmony in Sabzevari Dialect. Dialectology, 8, 31-40 (In Persian).
Fattahi, M. (2011). Morpho-phonological Processes in Kalhori Kurdish. Unpublished MA Thesis. Allameh Tabataba'ee University (In Persian).
Fattahi, M. (2014). Glide Formation as a Strategy for Hiatus Resolution: A Case Analysis in Kalhori Kurdish. Iranian Journal of Comparative Linguistic Research, 4 (7), 263-275 (In Persian).
Gowhari, A. & Gowahari, Z. (2017). Phonological Processes in Kurdish (Kalhori Dialect). Sarat Publication (In Persian).
McCarthy, J. J. (2000). Harmonic serialism and parallelism. In Masako Hirotani (ed.), Proceedings of the North East Linguistics Society 30 (pp. 501-524). Amherst, MA: GLSA Publications. [Available on Rutgers Optimality Archive, ROA-357.]
McCarthy, J. J. (2009). Doing Optimality Theory: Applying Theory to Data: Wiley.
Modarresi Ghavami, G. (2010). Vowel Harmony and Vowel-to-Vowel Coarticulation in Persian. Language and Linguistics, 6(11), 69-86 (In Persian).
Mohammadi, A. (2013). Morpho-phonological Processes in Sorani Kurdish. Unpublished MA Thesis. Allameh Tabatabe'ee University (In Persian).
Prince, A. & Smolensky, P. (2004) Optimality Theory: Constraint Interaction in Generative Grammar. Malden, MA, & Oxford: Blackwell. [Revision of 1993 technical report, Rutgers University Center for Cognitive
Razinejad, S. M. (2012). Harmonic Serialism in Azerbaijani Turkish. Language and Linguistics, 16, 15-34 (In Persian).
Razinejad, S. M. (2014). Vowel Harmony and Disharmony in Azerbaijani Turkish. Journal of Language Research, 4 (2), 61-80 (In Persian).
Sadeghi, V. (2013). Place Assimilation in the Persian Coronal Nasal: Categorical or Gradient?. Language Research, 3 (2), 57-75 (In Persian).
Sadeghi, V. & Delvari, A. (2020). Vowel Harmony in Hamedani Turkish: A Case Study to Test the Reliability of Optimmolity Models. Journals of Iranian Dialects Linguistics, 5 (1), 53-81 (In Persian).
Sadjadi, S. & Kord Zafaranlu Kambuzia, A. (2014). Consonantal Phonological Processes in Common Words between the Standard Persian Language and Hawrami Language (Hawraman Takht Dialect). Journal of Western Iranian Languages and Dialects, 1 (4), 73-100 (In Persian).
Savojbolaghi, M. (2016). The Analysis of Morpho-phonological Processes in Sorani Kurdish Verbs (Mukriani Dialect). Unpublished MA Thesis. Allameh Tabataba'ee University (In Persian).
Sheykhsangtajan, S. & Pourusef Hashjin, B. (2019). The Investigation of the Phonological Process of Vowel Harmony in Rasht Gilaki Dialect on the basis of Auto-segmental Phonology. Journal of Iranian Regional Languages and Literature, 8 (4), 103-128 (In Persian).
Sobati, E. (2017). Phonological Processes of Vowels in Kalhori Kurdish. The Fourth International Conference of Applied Research in Language Studies. Tehran: Nikan Higher Education Institute (In Persian).
Zahedi, K. & Fakharian, F. (2011). Consonantal Assimilation in Modern Persian: A Feature Geometry Approach. Journal of Researches in Linguitsics, 3 (5), 47-64 (In Persian).
Zamani, M. (2012). The Description and Analysis of Phonological Processes in Kurdish (Kalhori Dialect). Unpublished MA Thesis. University of Kurdistan (In Persian).

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics