Phonotactics of Persian Words with the Syllable Structure (C)V.CVC(C)

Issues concerning syllable structure, as well as the arrangement and configuration of the phonological units inside a syllable or out of it (i.e. the border of two syllables), are basically discussed within the domain of phonology. This article tries to shed a new light on the issue of syllable structure and phonotactics, on the basis of data from Persian Language. Given the fact that the structure of syllable in Persian is (C)V(C)(C), the present article tries to show if there is any difference between the phonotactics of an individual syllable with that of the same syllable when combined with other syllables, and also tries to find out if there is a significant relationship between the phonotactics of words and their parts of speech. In order to do so, 4075 bisyllabic words with the syllable structure (C)V.CVC(C) were collected from two Persian dictionaries were collected, and were tagged in terms of their types as well as their parts of speech; and the phonotactics of each were determined. The results of this research show reveal that several factors such as the type of syllable nucleus and the coda of the syllable may turn out to be effective on the phonotactics of the adjacent syllable. Also, there seems to be a specific relationship between the syllabic structures of the words with their types and parts of speech.