An Analysis Based on Optimality about Vowel Reduction to Resolve Hiatus in Kurdish and Persian

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Ph.D. Student of Linguistics, Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tehran, Iran

2 Assistant Professor of Linguistics, Islamic Azad University, Central Tehran Branch, Tehran, Iran.

3 Assistant Professor of Linguistics, Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

The present study deals with hiatus resolution through vowel reduction in Kurdish and Persian based on OT phonology. A collection of movies, TV series, and written texts formed the corpus of the study. In data description and analysis, the linguistic intuition of native Persian and Central Kurdish speakers were used. Based on the analysis, the authors concluded that Persian and Kurdish use glide formation through vowel reduction to resolve hiatus in certain phonetic environments. In Persian, to resolve hiatus, the two high vowels /i/ and /u/ are converted into a short vowel and the glides /j/ and /w/, respectively. In Central Kurdish, glide formation occurs in high vowels /i:, u:/ and mid-high vowels /ē:, ō:/. Glide formation in Persian is accompanied with a quantitative change in vowel /i:/ and a quantitative and qualitative change in /u:/. In contrast, glide formation in Central Kurdish is accompanied with only quantitative change in long vowels. The OT analysis revealed that the main factor driving hiatus resolution in both Persian and Kurdish is the need for an onset in syllable structure. In contexts in which glide formation occurs through vowel reduction, the active constraints in Persian and Kurdish are: ONSET, AGREE(place), MAX, DEP, IDENT(µ).

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

Ahmadi, M., Zahedi, M. S., & Gholami, V. (2019 a). Vowel shortening in Central Kurdish: An analysis based on the principles of Optimality phonology. Journal of Western Iranian Languages and Dialects, 7 (1), 21-31. doi: 10.22126/jlw.2019.1027 (In Persian).
Ahmadi, M., Zahedi, M. S., & Gholami, V. (2019 b). Hiatus of vowels and resolving them in Central Kurdish. Journal of Western Iranian Languages and Dialects, 7(3), 1-15 (In Persian).
Amirjani, S., Kambuziya, A. K. Z., & Najafian, A. (2019). The hiatus between the continuous prefix /mi-/ and present stem in standard Farsi: A generative approach. Pazhūhish-i Źabān va Adabiyyāt-i Farsī, 53 (5), 23-47 (In Persian).
Carr, P. (2008). A glossary of phonology. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Crystal, D. (2008). A dictionary of linguistics and phonetics (6th ed.). Oxford: Blackwell.
Esmaeili-Matin, Z., Kambuziya, A. K. Z., Golfam, A., & Dabir-Moghaddam, M. (2017). Vowel hiatus resolution in the /ɑ-i/ environment in derivation boundary in Persian words: Optimality Theory. Journal of Western Iranian Languages and Dialects, 3 (15), 25-40. doi: 10.22126/jlw.2017.1192 (In Persian).
Fattahi, M. (2014). Glide Formation as a Strategy for Hiatus Resolution: A Case Analysis in Kalhori Kurdish. Iranian Journal of Comparive Linguistic Research, 4 (7), 263-275 (In Persian)..
Jam, B. (2015). Hiatus resolution strategies in Persian. Journal of Linguistics & Khorasan Dialects, 7(12), 79-100. doi: 10.22067/lj.v7i12.48166 (In Persian).
Jensen, J. T., & Jensen, M. S. (2012). Sanskrit vowel hiatus. McGill Working Papers in Linguistics, 22(1), 1-12.
Kadenge, M. & Mudzigwa, C. (2011). Comparing hiatus resolution in Karanga and Nambya: An Optimality Theory account. Nordic Journal of African Studies, 20, 203-240.
Kager, R. (1999). Optimality theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Karimi-Doostan, G. H. (2002). Sākhtemān-e heja dar zabān-e Kurdi [The syllable structure in Kurdish]. Language and Literature Journal of the Faculty of Literature and Humanities of FUM, 35 (1-2), 235-248 (In Persian).
Kord Zaferanloo Kambuzia, A. (2007). Vajshenasi: Rouykardha-ye gha’ede-bonyad [Phonology: Rule-based approaches]. Tehran: Samt (In Persian).
Kord Zaferanloo Kambuzia, A., Ghorbanpour, A. & Mahdipour, N. (2017). Vowel shortening in Persian: A phonological analysis. Poznan Studies in Contemporary Linguistics, 53 (3), 373-397.
Ladefoged, P. & Johnson, K. (2011). A course in phonetics (6th ed.). Australia: Thomson, Wadsworth.
McCarthy, J. (2002). A thematic guide to optimality theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rosenthall, S. (1994). Vowel/glide alternation in a theory of constraint interaction. Ph.D. dissertation in linguistics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Sadeghi, V. & Sadeghi, S. (2017). Vowel hiatus in Surani Kurdish. Language Research, 8 (1), 117-136. doi: 10.22059/jolr.2017.63142 (In Persian).
Samareh, Y. (2001). Avāshenāsi-ye zabān-e Fārsi: Avāhā va sākhte avā’i-ye hejā [The phonetics of Persian: Sounds and phonetic structure of syllable] (2nd ed.). Tehran: Iran University Pulishers (In Persian).
Tanner, D. (2006). Context insensitive vowel hiatus resolution in Ciyao. In: S. Moran (Ed.), University of Washington Working Papers in Linguistics, 25, 1-24. Seattle: WA.
Zahedi, M. S. (2013). Investigating the phonological processes in Sanandaj Kurdish based on Optimality Theory phonology. PhD dissertation. Isfahan: University of Isfahan (In Persian).

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics