Investigating Different Ways of Achieving the Sonority Sequencing Principle and the Syllable Contact Law: Optimality Theory

The purpose of this study is to investigate those phonological processes, speakers of Persian language and some of Iranian dialects use in order to observe the sonority sequencing principle (SSP) and the syllable contact law (SCL). Among the questions we would like answer the following questions: 1. what phonological processes are used by the speakers of Persian language and some types of Iranian languages in order to observe the sonority sequencing principle and the syllable contact law and 2. What effect does the syllable number of the word have on the application of phonological processes?. Based on the mentioned questions, these hypotheses can be made: 1. the speakers of language use the phonological processes of compensatory lengthening, metathesis, insertion, deletion and substitution in order to observe the sonority sequencing principle and the syllable contact law 2. The syllable number of the simple words does not have any effect on the application of phonological processes.

However, in order to do this research, data of Persian language are collected from the spoken language of the speakers. Then, their phonological forms are compared with Moshiri’s dictionary (2008). Data of Kordi Hurami dialect are gathered through interview with the speakers and data of Lafuri, Torbat Heidariye and Sabzevari dialects are extracted from Kambuziya (2006).

Out of 1125 gathered simple words that do not conform to the SSP and the SCL, the phonological processes of 'compensatory lengthening', 'metathesis', 'insertion', 'deletion' and 'substitution of a phonological unit with another phonological unit' are applied to 357 words by language speakers. In sum, the frequency analysis of data shows that:

The deletion of the glottal consonants / ʔ / and / h / is more frequent in the two syllable words. In other words, this process occurs in 66/19 percent of disyllabic words, 23/94 percent of tri syllabic words and 9/85 percent of one syllable words. Furthermore, the constraint hierarchy for the phonological process of deletion of the glottal consonants and the compensatory lengthening of a vowel can be illustrated as: SON-SEQ>> No cluster-glottal, MAX-μ >> MAX-IO.

The phonological process of metathesis is more frequent in the disyllabic words. This process occurs in 65/74 percent of two syllable words, 25 percent of monosyllabic words and 9/25 percent of three syllable words. In addition, the constraint hierarchy for the application of metathesis can be shown as: SON-SEQ>> LINEARITY and SCL>> LINEARITY.

The process of insertion is more frequent in the disyllabicwords. This process occurs in 96/87 percent of disyllabic words and in 3/12 percent of monosyllabic words. The constraint hierarchy of this process can be indicated as: SON-SEQ>> DEP-IO.

An investigation of the extracted Persian simple words shows that the sonority sequencing principle is not observed in 24 words with the structure of /CVC1C2 / . In these cases, the process of deletion is not applied. When the speakers use these monosyllabic simple words in combination with other linguistic elements, the deletion of the final consonant occurs. However, the constraint hierarchy of this process can be illustrated as: SON-SEQ>> MAX-IO.

The process of substitution occurs in some words of kordi Hurami dialect. In other words, when the sonority sequencing principle is not observed in the initial consonant cluster, the second member of the cluster which is less sonorant than the first member is substituted with another consonant which is more sonorant than the first member. The constraint hierarchy of this phonological process can be shown as: SON-SEQ>> *STOP/#C >> IDENT (manner).

Thus, it can be argued that these processes are applied to mono, di and tri syllabic words among which the frequency of disyllabic words is more than that of one and tri syllabic words.