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Sound substitution is a process whereby a phoneme in a loanword is replaced by its closest phone in the borrowing language. Many English loanwords with consonants /T/, /w/, /k/ and /g/ have been adapted by Persian. None of these consonants exist as a phoneme in Persian. The pronunciation or substitution of these consonants by their closest phone in Persian depends on the phonological environment; the dental /T/ is replaced by [t] and [s] respectively in the onset and coda. The bilabial /w/ is replaced by [v] in the onset. However, since [w] is only used as an intervocalic consonant in Persian, it acts like an intervocalic consonant upon the declusterization of word initial /sw/. Therefore, it is not usually replaced by any consonant in this environment. Finally, the velar consonants /k/ and /g/ either change to palatal [c] and [Š] respectively or do not change at all, due to the phonological environment. This research aimed at explaining each of these sound substitution processes within the framework of optimality theory (Prince and Smolensky, 1993/2004). It presents arguments in favor of constraint rankings which cause the occurances of these processes.

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Recitation of the Holy Qur’an has its own phonological rules. This paper addresses total nasal place and manner assimilation, known as “idgham”, that lead to “gemination with nasalization” and “gemination without nasalization”. The former which is accompanied by lengthening occurs in the environment where the /n/ in the coda position precedes one of the four sonorants /j/, /m/, /w/, and /n/ in the onset position of the following syllable. However, the latter which is not accompanied by lengthening occurs in the environment where /n/ in the coda position precedes either of the sonorant liquids /r/ or /l/ in the onset position of the following syllable. The present research aimed at identifying the constraints whose interactions cause either of these processes in the recitation of the Holy Qur’an within the framework of optimality theory (Prince and Smolensky, 1993/2004). The results of this paper are as follows: The [+long] geminated [n:.n] is the result of gemination of /n/ in the coda position with /n/ in the onset position. The [+long] geminated [m:.m] is the result of total nasal place assimilation of /n/ in the coda position with /m/ in the onset position. The [-long] geminated [r.r] and [l.l] are the result of total manner assimilation of /n/ in the coda position, respectively with /r/ and /l/ in the onset position. The [+long] geminated [j:.j] and [w:.w] are the result of both total nasal place and manner assimilations of /n/ in the coda position, respectively with /j/ and /w/ in the onset position.
 

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Borrowing words is a common and unavoidable phenomenon that is closely related to relation of different linguistic communities. The purpose of this research is to study the phonological adaptation of Arabic loanwords in Persian focusing on vowels system. Authors gathered 1647 Arabic loan words from Persian Dictionary of Moien and Sokhan, and then they extracted phonemic form of loan words from four Arabic dictionaries. Phonemic forms of the words in Persian were collected from both Dictionaries. All the phonemic forms of the words were written in IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet). And then by comparing two phonemic forms of the words, they found the phonological rules of adaptation. The framework of the study is OT (Optimality Theory) according to Prince and Smolensky. An optimal Tableau was considered for each phonological rules and explain the competition of constraints. The finding of the present study is that vowel substitution is the most common phonological rules in adaptation of Arabic vowels in Persian.

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Third person singular ending -ad is pronounced [e] in standard colloquial Persian but [ed] in Esfahani Persian. This is due to the changing of /a/ to [e] in both accents as well as the deletion of /d/ in the standard colloquial accent rather than Esfahani accent. Furthermore, -ad is pronounced [d] in both accents in the case the last phoneme of the verb to which it is added is /A/. This is due to the deletion of /a/ and not /d/. This research aimed at coming up with inclusive rankings of constraints to explain these three different pronunciations of the third person singular ending within Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky, 1993/2004). In this paper, it is argued that /d/ deletion feeds the changing of /a/ to [e] in the standard colloquial accent. It is also argued that the markedness constraint that causes the changing of /a/ to [e] in the standard colloquial accent is different from the one that causes the same process in Esfahani accent.
 

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According to The Richness of the Base (ROTB) in Optimality Theory, there is no limitation on the input and linguistic variation in this theory which is defined as permutation of constraints. Assuming Sorani Kurdish verbal form to be more intact than those of Ardalani and Kalhori dialects, it is treated as the proto-form and, following OT principles, and by showing different constraint permutaions, an instance of variation among these three dialects is put forth. To do so, having interviewed 10 native speakers of Sorani, Ardalani and Kalhori each, and having obtained an audio corpus, the authors consider the Sorani form as an input, putting it into different constraint tableaux, and different constrains permutation resulted which is thought to be the reason of variation. In Kalhori and then in Ardalani more markedness constrainsts are active than in Sorani. OT can deal with the variation perceived in verb forms in Kurdish dialects well.
 
 

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The present research is aimed to analyze the phonological processes of Galeshi dialect such as; compensatory lengthening, deletion, lenition, raising and metathesis. The theoretical framework of the study is on optimality theory, and the dialectal data gathering has been via recording ten hours of speech together with the researcher's intuition as a native speaker. The data has been transcribed according to IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) and the research method is descriptive- analytic. Accordingly, the phonological processes and compensatory deletion of /h/, /?/ in two- syllable words in CVC.CV (C) context leads to compensatory lengthening of vowel in first syllable; deletion of consonants /t/, /d/ as a second number of a consonant cluster or succession of consonants; deletion of coda voiced consonant after long vowels), lenition (change of /b/ to [v] and /Œ/ to [X] ; raising (change of /e/ as a low vowel to [i] as a high vowel; metathesis (substitution of /r/ replaces /d/and /b/ in "madrese" and "kebrit" words and /s/ replaces /k/ in "taksi' word.(have been exemplified within the tables and analyzed in tableaus by the use of the constraint rankings in OT. The results depict deletion and insertion as the highest processed and metathesis as the lowest. Key words: Phonological Processes, Eshkevar Galeshi Dialect, Optimality Theory.

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The present research seeks to analyze two phonological processes of Pasikhani dialect: compensatory lengthening and Vowel harmony. The theoretical framework of the study is on the basis of optimality approach, and the dialectal data gathering has been via recording five hours of speech together with the researcher's intuition as a native speaker. The data have been transcribed according to IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) and the research method is descriptive- analytic one. Accordingly, the phonological processes and compensatory deletion of /h/, /?/ in mono syllabic words in CVCC and disyllabic  words in CVC.CV (C) context which lead to compensatory lengthening of vowel in first syllable; raising and vowel harmony (change of /e/ as a low vowel to [i] as a high vowel; (change of /e/ as a front vowel to [u] as a back vowel) have been exemplified within the tables and analyzed in tableaus by the use of the constraint rankings in OT.    The results depict deletion and insertion as the highest processed and metathesis as the lowest. 

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Linguistic varieties are broadened by complexities of social relations. Among these, interaction of phonetic and social variables plays important role in linguistic varieties. The goal of this paper is to study the nature of phonological metathesis and its relation to social variables of age and education. The framework of this article is social phonology using analytic and field study methodology. In phonological analysis which was in optimality theory, it was determined that sonority sequence principle and syllable contact law are responsible for this process. In this research 110 words are pronounced by 56 individuals. In phonological account which was within optimality theory it was determined that sonority sequence principle and syllable contact law are main causes of this process. Also in this research the frequency of the consonants involved in the process is determined. Participants are classified according to age and education. Regarding the age of participant four groups have been chosen: 4-5, 6-7, 29-40 and 41-69, it means that educated, illiterate, mid education and academic. Results show that by the increase of age, the rate of metathesis decreases. Also by increase in education the rate of metathesis decreases.

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Sonority determines the legal syllable structure of a language and triggers applying some phonological processes in order to retain the appropriate syllable pattern. All Turkic languages exhibit five different strategies/consonant cluster processes (metathesis, weakening, degemination, deletion and epenthesis) which are sonority-driven and arise through the interaction of markedness and faithfulness constraints. By considering a full range of data from Azeri and Turkish languages within the framework of optimality theoretic phonology we found that high ranking sonority constraints such as syllable contact law, sonority sequence principle, and sonority angle affect the clusters of loanwords and native words through different phonological processes. In fact these various phonological processes are used to improve syllable structure and save a segment from deletion. While in these languages words can end in two consonants, glide/liquid-nasal and glide-liquid sequences in spite of having rising sonority are not possible. Although coda sonorants may not be broken by a vowel epenthesis due to an OCP effect because /r/-obstruent and /n/-obstruent (ʣ) sequences are also not preferred in casual speech. In this paper, in the light of evidence from Turkic languages, issues like inserting and omitting of vowel within the rising sonority medial clusters, Prothesis and Anaptyxis in onset clusters, vowel epenthesis in rising and falling sonority final clusters, and consonant deletion in pre-consonantal coda position are considered within the framework of optimality theoretic phonology to show that the motivation for vowel insertion in word initial consonant clusters is to observe *Complex^ons, the epenthesis site (within the cluster or at the word-edge) is determined by the high ranking sonority constraints And also to show that the sonority advantage of a glide or a liquid over a nasal is insufficient to override Dep-Io. So what triggers the variable behavior of Turkish, Lebanese Arabic, Irish, Chaha, Catalan clusters is the Sonority Angel formed by the contours /CC/ and [CV]. Finally we observe that homorganic clusters are perceptually marked. That is a consonant which has few feature distinguishing it in place or manner from a preceding consonant is perceptually indistinct and is less suitable than a more contrastive consonant for maintaining lexical contrasts. Moreover we have to note that In Azeri the occurrence of coda-onset sequences across a syllable boundary subjects to the Syllable Contact Law (the optimal intervocalic consonant cluster is the one that terminates the first syllable with high sonority and starts the next syllable with low sonority). Thus Azeri applies some strategies to optimize the syllable contact. All clusters violating syllable contact are reordered, and broken up by epenthesis. Metathesis which can be explained in terms of phonological system rather than phonetical system is regular and productive in the language in question and links synchronic studies to diachronic ones.

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Persian with CV(C(C)) syllable structure is a language with just a double consonant final cluster. The present study is an investigation of consonant deletion in Persian final clusters. To do this 1500 words, at least 600 of them one syllable were investigated. The study has classified the clusters into two classes, with or without consonant deletion (stable or instable cluster).The consonants of the clusters were analyzed based on the sameness and distinctions of investigated features.  The study has indicated that the number of clusters with consonant deletion is less than those without. There is a direct relationship between the sameness of values and stability of clusters.  In stable clusters the same values for obstruent, continuant and voice in general, are significantly less than those with different ones. The difference between the number of + F and –F for continuant and voice are statistically significant while for obstruent is not. The study has also indicated that in addition to features phonotactic as well as word structure is also effective. In the present study consonant deletion in Persian has been analyzed in the frame work of Optimality theory. In this way it has been argued that marked constrains hierarchy stand above faithful ones. 

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The goal of this research is investigation of simple verbs root in Persian Language which coronal nasal [n] is their coda. We are going to see, which kind of constraints are acted on the nasal [n] in final cluster of C₀VC₁C₂ as the first member. In other words, in simple verbs root that [n] is coda, after adding past affix, which kind of constraints are acted on final cluster? To this end, among 397 simple verbs root, without repeat and without causative affix, 22 monosyllabic, bi syllabic and tri syllabic verbs root that their final syllable was CVn+d were investigated. The resulted constraints are: 1) the clusters which their C₁ is [n] never formed with one of the cores of [u, i]; in other words, high vowels cannot be the core of a syllable by final cluster [nd]. 2) Nasal [n] doesn’t change at the end of monosyllabic roots by mid and low cores; in other words, [-high] vowels can be the core of a syllable by final cluster [nd]. 3) Blocking rule prevents producing of the existing similar outputs in a language. 4) The sonority sequencing principle (SSP) is considered in all past stem forms of verbs.

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Being a descriptive-analytic research in Persian language, the present study deals with morphophonological processes to examine the performance of Stratal Optimality Theory for the first time.  Stratal OT is a hybrid model of OT in which the insights of Lexical Phonology and Morphology are broadly combined with parallel OT. Stratal OT posits constraint evaluation at three distinct levels or strata: stem, word and phrase level and as such it can show the intermediate levels showing the formation of the optimal option. This multi-level variation of the original OT model may provide more economical and elegant explanations of problems involving opacity, derived environment effects than other Parallel OT theories that have been developed to address these issues.
The data in this research have been collected through databases and written phonological resources. This paper studies deletion, insertion and compensatory lengthening processes within Stratal OT. The relevant constraints and their interactions in each level have been represented through different tablues. The results showed that Stratal OT has more explanatory power than Parallel OT to explain the mentioned  processes. Interestingly, Constraints at each level follow a consistent ranking pattern.
 
 

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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.

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Vowel harmony like assimilation is a very common process which is seen in most languages of the world. This process is studied by most phonological theories such as generative phonology, auto segmental phonology and optimality theory and is considered as a criterion for evaluating the adequacy of these phonological theories to account. This article deals with the vowel and vowel consonant harmony in Persian. Vowel harmony and vowel consonant harmony studies the features such as height, front/backless, roundness, and advanced tongue root and retracted tongue root. The research method of this article is content analysis and the data are collected by purposive sampling. Theoretical framework of this research is Optimality Theory. In Persian languages features of vowels such as frontness/backness, height and roundness involved in vowel and vowel consonant harmony are studied. Also some features of consonants such as anteriority or posteriority or their place of articulation changed in harmonies are studied.  In this article some faithfulness and marked constraints for accounting vowel and vowel- consonant harmony in Persian such as license, agreement and identity are introduced. Finally it was shown that strong positions in Persian account harmony in this language
1. Introduction
In some languages there are specific constraints ruling on vowel features which appear in special linguistic area which is called harmony, thereby vowels in intended areas harmonize in some feature. (Roca &Johnson,2005:149). In other words, vowel harmony is a kind of assimilation in which vowels in a specific phonological, morphological or syntactic assimilate in one or some features. The aim of this research is describing types of vowel harmony and vowel consonant harmony in the framework of optimality in Persian. The main question of this research is that whether there is vowel or vowel consonant harmony in Persian and if so, what features are involved in it? The research method of this article is content analysis and the framework is optimality theory. Data of this research are 705 words collected by counting all cases from the Moin 6 volumes dictionary. The data for optimality theory analysis are collected by purpose. Data analysis shows that in front vowels by reducing the height the frequency of vowel harmony among vowels increases. Also, in back vowels the most frequent harmony belongs to /a/ and frequency of vowel harmony among two other vowels, /o/ and /u/ are the same. In back vowels by reducing the height frequency of vowel harmony increases. In Persian and specially in colloquial variety vowel harmony is seen in simple and two part morphemes. Followings are main types of harmony in Persian: a: simple harmony in one feature. In this harmony only one feature is involved. Back harmony: [ʔerteʔɑš] →[ʔertɑʔɑš].  Height harmony: sebi´l      →     sibi´l. Roundness harmony:      be+xor  →     bo´xor. b. harmony in multiple features. In this type some vowel fetures are involved. In   be+gu  →   bu´gu   /e/ alternates with /u/./e/ because of heightness and backness of /u/ become [ +high,+back].In epenthesis vowel harmony in Bushehri dialect definite suffix has three alternations: /-oku/, /-eku/ and /-ku/, from which the first two end in consonant and the last one end in vowel. (Ahmadzade Borazjani,2010). In vowel consonant harmony features of vowel harmonize with consonant: in bi-ya alternation of /i/ and /e/   is because of harmony between height and since /y/ has the feature [-back,+high], /e/ becomes high and changes to /i/.
 
Tableau 1. constraints of /bæha’r /

Input: /bæhar´/	AGREE(back)	Lic(back)-σæ	IDENT- IO(back)
a. bæhar´	*!
a. bæhar´			*
c.bæhær´		*!	*

  
Tableau 1 represents constraints, candidate a doesn't violates license constraint and the reason is that /a/ has stress. This candidate violates Agree constraint because of difference of the vowels. Also, this candidate because of the lack of changing the vowels from input to output violates the identity constraint. Candidate b observes the license constraint because of the stress of the second vowel. Also, this candidate observes the Agree constraint because of sameness of vowels. However, the third constraint because of the difference in input and output in the first vowel is violated. Candidate c violates the license constraint because of the lack of stress in back vowels. Also, this candidate violates the identity because of the difference of the vowel in input and output. Agree constraint because of the identity of the vowels is not violated. So, the candidate b is optimal.
 
Tableau2. Constraints of /keli´d/

Input: /keli´d/	AGREE(high)	Lic(high)-σæ	IDENT- IO(high)
a.keleʹd		*!	*
b.Ckili´d			*
c.kileʹd	*	*!	**

 
In tableau 2 candidate a violates a because of lack of height of stressed vowel. This candidate observes Agree constraint because of identity of vowels. Also, this candidate violates identity constrain because of changing the second vowel. Candidate b violates identity constraint because of the lack of height stressed vowel. Candidate c violates license constraint because of the lack of height of stressed vowel. Also, this candidate violates the Agree constraint because of the difference in vowels. Identity constraint is violated twice because of the difference in vowels in input and output. So, constraint b is optimal.
 
Tableau3. Constraints of /be-xor/

Input: /be-xor/	AGREE(back)	Lic (+round)- σ´	IDENT(round)
a. be-xor	*
b. Cbo-xor			*

 
 In tableau 3 candidate a violates Agree constraint in backness. Candidate b violates only roundedness constraint which is in lower rank. So, candidate b is optimal.
In Persian there are three types of vowel harmony including harmony in height, harmony in back vowels and harmony in roundedness. Harmony of height of vowels applies on middle vowels and this causes to raising and become a high vowel. The goal of vowel harmony of backness or height of vowels in Persian is reducing the resetting articulatory organs and this is the result of faithfulness of strong position. It seems that in Persian in simple word stress is phonological element which causes harmony. In these words, feature spreading from strong position, stress position to weak phonological position, stress less position. However, in complex words root acts as strong position.

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The process of Reduplication, due to its importance, has attracted very much attention from linguists in recent decades The present research aims at describing and analyzing total reduplication processes including added medial and final total reduplication and echo reduplication (changing the initial consonant or vowel of reduplicant) in Ghayeni dialect based on Parallel Optimality Theory (POT), in particular Stratal Optimality Theory (SOT). To this end, the considered reduplicative data were gathered based on Shaghaghi reduplication model (2000, 2018). To analyze some data, we need to predict the correct output through some levels to consider the morphological derivation correctly. Since POT has a one-level (input and output) nature, it is unable to explain some reduplicative data. So, SOT, with no limit on the number and kinds of levels, is used to analyze the medial and final added total reduplication. In the present study, the final added total reduplication is considered in two stem levels in which ONSET is on the top of constraint ranking. Since the final consonant of the base undergoes germination, in the medial added total reduplication using enclitic /o/, two levels of stem and word are required. In the medial added total reduplication, the constraint ranking is only different in stem level (a) because the type of reduplicant (echo or non-echo) is determined in this level. But in the next levels, stem level (b) and word level, which undergoes germination and resyllabification, constraints have the same ranking. The results show that SOT presents a more obvious analysis of the mid-levels in the medial and final added total reduplication.
 

1. Introduction

Reduplication is a syntactic process in which all or part of a base word is repeated (Lieber, 2009). In the Reduplication process, an element (or an affix) is added to the base word, which is called a Reduplicative component, and its form is affected by the base word (Kager, 1999). In this word formation process, all or part of the base word is repeated to the left, right, or sometimes in the middle of the base word, included total reduplication (total reduplication and total added reduplication) and partial reduplication (prefixation, suffixation and infixation). Types of repetition in Persian and its different variants have been considered especially in the framework of parallel optimality theory (OT). The question now is whether reduplicative words can be analyzed in another approach of OT, here the stratal OT, in one of the Persian linguistic variants, the Ghayeni dialect? Ghayeni dialect is spoken in Ghayen. Ghayen is one of the cities of South Khorasan which is limited to Gonabad and Torbat-e Heydariyeh from the north and Birjand from the south. Therefore, among the types of reduplication processes, the aim of the present study is to investigate and analyze the total reduplication process including total non-additive reduplication and total additive reduplication (middle and end) and complete echoic reduplication (by changing the vowel or initial consonant of the reduplicated component) based on the classification of reduplicative process types from the perspective of Shaghaghi (2000, 2018) in Ghayeni dialect according to parallel OT (Prince & Smolensky, 1993/2004) and stratal OT (Kiparsky, 1998a, 2000).

2. Theoretical Framework

Stratal OT is one of the approaches to OT that is made by combining stratal approaches such as morphology and lexical phonology with OT. In the stratal optimality approach, there are different models, the similarity between them is in the variety of layers and there is no limit to the number and type of them. In the optimality approach, there are several layers that are arranged sequentially from input to output. According to Kiparsky, there are three layers in the stratal OT. At the three levels of this approach, the stem first enters the stem level. Inside the stem level, in addition to the stem, a derivative affix or a compound word is added to it. The product of this level enters the word level. At the word level, a second derivative (if any) or inflectional affix is added to the output of the stem level. Finally, at the postlexical level, which is at the phrase level, the words are combined, and what happens at this level is only the study of phonological and morphological changes.

3. Methodology

The research method is a descriptive-field method to test the hypothesis. In this regard, both documentary and field methods have been used in collecting data. In the field method, the researchers recorded the speech of twenty native speakers, mostly illiterate or older than sixty years. Finally, a written corpus containing one hundred reduplicative words and an oral corpus consisting of three hundred sentences were collected. Then one of the authors, who is a native speaker of Ghayeni and has sufficient mastery of its words, extracted reduplicative words based on the dialect. After categorization based on Shaghaghi's (2000, 2018) reduplicative process types, the reduplicative words were transliterated according to the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), Doulos SIL version. Next, by identifying the occurrence or non-occurrence of constraints corresponding to the context of reduplicative words and their ranking, the analysis appropriate to each of the changes was first examined in the framework of the parallel OT.

4. Results and Discussion

The process of repetition has long been one of the interesting topics for linguists as a result of advances in phonological and structural theories (McCarthy, 1979; Marantz, 1982; Kiparsky, 1986; McCarthy & Prince, 1986, 1993, 1995; Spencer, 1991; Haspelmath, 2002; Inkelas & Zoll, 2005). In this section, the types of total non-additive reduplication and total additive reduplication (middle and end) and complete echoic reduplication (by changing the vowel or initial consonant of the reduplicated component) are examined in the framework of parallel OT (Prince & Smolensky, 1993/2004). In cases where the parallel OT is not able to justify the differences between the input and output forms, the stratal OT )Kiparsky, 1998a, 2000( is used. parallel OT is used to justify total non-additive reduplication in Ghayeni dialect. The faithfulness constraint IDENT-BR (Kennedy, 2008) has the highest order, according to which the corresponding base and reduplicated parts must be exactly the same. The two faithfulness constraints of MAX-IO (McCarthy & Prince, 1995), which rejects output deletion, and MAX BR (McCarthy & Prince, 1995), which do not allow any deletion in the reduplicated component, rank higher than *REPEAT (Kennard, 2004) which penalizes the proximity of identical syllables. To examine final total and medial added reduplication, it is necessary to describe the layers and the stages of their formation step by step, so parallel optimal theory (Prince & Smolensky, 1993/2004) is not able to describe this process appropriately, because it has a single-level input-output nature. To explain total reduplication of the final addition based on the stratal OT, two layers must be considered, both of which are at the stem level. At the stem level, word formation is of the derivation and composition type. While at the word level inflectional form (s) of the word is generated. Some types of total medial added reduplications are created by /o/ suffix. In this case, due to the occurrence of the final consonant of the base between the two vowels, that consonant geminates. In Persian, the geminated phoneme is not placed at the end of the syllable, but it can be after the vowel, the geminated phoneme is divided into two syllables (Kord-e Za'faranloo et al. 2016, p.228). To explain total echoic reduplication that changes the beginning of the reduplicated component, three levels must be considered, two stem levels and one word level. Three levels of analysis, two stem levels and one word level, are needed to explain the total echoic reduplication that changes the vowel in the reduplicated component. At the level of stem A, the reduplicated component is echoed to the base, so that its vowel is different from the base vowel.

5. Conclusion

In response to the main question of the research, based on the ability of the stratal OT to justify the changes between input and output forms of reduplicated words in Ghayeni dialect, the results showed that to evaluate the total final and medial added reduplication, the layers and its formation steps needed to be described step by step. Therefore, parallel OT was not considered appropriate due to the monolayer nature of input-output. Thus, stratal OT was used to explain the complete repetition processes of medial (echoic and non-echoic) and final.

For the analysis total reduplication, the final added was assumed to have two layers at the stem level and it was shown that the order of the constraints was different in each layer. In the case of total reduplication, the medial added is geminated due to the linking morpheme /o/. Parallel OT could not justify this change in input and output, so stratal OT was the solution of this analysis and three levels (two stem levels and one word level) were considered. Regarding the explanation of the total medial added reduplication, both echoic and non-echoic, it was observed that the ranking the constraints is different only in the first layer, i.e. the level of stem A, and is the same in the other two layers. The reason for the difference in the first layer is that at this level the type of the reduplicated component is determined to be non-echoic or echoic, and if it is echoic, the onset changes or the vowel. At the other two levels, the addition of the /o/ morpheme, gemination and resyllabification are common in all three types of reduplications. That being said, parallel OT can only handle the analysis of total non-additive reduplication, but is not sufficient for the analysis of total medial and final added reduplication. This confirms the research hypothesis: stratal OT is sufficient to analyze these processes, although the principle of linguistic economics may not be observed.

 

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Researchers have variously investigated Persian in generative, functional, and cognitive frameworks, although, failed to account for some structural changes and the emergence of marked structures such as Left dislocation. The main goal of this article is to investigate left dislocation based on Optimality Theory. The present research is based on the descriptive-analytical method, and our corpus will include spoken Persian. The present paper aims to show that some constraints can be applied to form left dislocation in Persian, while ranking of the constraints represents the optimal form/forms. The constriants are based on constructional uints of Featurs and Conceptual Units which are properties of grammatical categories such as argument, or discourse-functioal ones, such as topic. The results show that applying the constraints of precedence, adjacency, and faithfulness on one side, and more features or conceptual units on the other side, the applied theory can further result in appropriate analysis of Persian cases. In other words, Syntax First Alignment has proved to be a promising framework for modeling Persian Left dislocation and can offer an alternative for syntactic frameworks based on hierarchical structure. The results, also, indicates that the features of [NEW], [ABOUT], and [CONTRAST] have key roles in Persisn Argument Left Dislocation. In addition, violating the constraints of Subject and Topic brings about unoptimality.


 

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The aim of this study is to analyze the role of phonological opacity in the phonetic representation of the prefix of progressive aspect in Kermanshahi Persian. In this dialect, when the progressive prefix /mi-/ is added to the verb stem, it changes in form in certain cases, depending on the nature of the first vowel of the verb. In Kermanshahi Persian, the progressive prefix is added to the left side of verbal root - which is, in turn, followed by verbal ending. This research is based on the Optimality Theory-Candidate Chains (McCarthy, 2007) - a version of Serial Optimality Theory. The data of this research have been collected through the conversations with the speakers of Kermanshahi Persian dialect in two age groups of over fifty- and under twenty-year-olds, relying – as well - on researchers' language intuition. The results of this study indicate that what causes the opacity in the phonetic representation of the vowel of progressive prefix in Kermanshahi Persian dialect is the occurrence of counter-bleeding interaction. The Serial Optimality Theory, is more successful in explaining this phenomenon than Parallel Optimality Theory.

1. Introduction
Kermanshahi Persian is a dialect which is spoken in the city of Kermanshah mainly in the west of Iran, and it presents certain linguistic differences with Standard Persian. One of the morpho-phonological differences is in the phonetic form of the progressive prefix /mi-/ when attached to certain verbal stems. Like what occurs in Standard Persian with the subjunctive prefix /be-/, the vowel of the prefix /mi/ undergoes vowel harmony if the following verbal stem contains a round vowel, and just as in /be-ro/ ("Go!") which surfaces as [bo-ro] on the phonetic level, /mi-/ in Kermanshahi Kurdish turns into [mo-] if there is a round element in the verbal stem, making forms like [mo.-ko.n-am] (meaning 'I do') out of /mi-kon-am/. The motivation of the such rule, however, is challenged by the phonetic form [mo.-xɑm] (I want), in which the vowel of the prefix is rounded, but there does not seem to be any round element as the motivation. This opaque application of the phonological process is analyzed in this article via the principles Optimality Theory. The main questions of the present study are as follows: (1) to what extent is Optimality Theory successful in explaining the opacity introduced by Kermanshahi Persian data? (2) What are the relevant active constraints? (3) In what permutation must the constraints be organized? (4) Which of the two versions of Optimality Theory, namely Parallel or Serial, is more successful in the explanation of the data in this study?

2. Literature Review
In order to prepare the grounds and to have a better insight into the present study, the review is based on the relevant works on phonological opacity and Optimality Theory which have been done inside and outside Iran.

2.1. International Studies
Bermúdez-Otero (1999, pp. 36-39) is among the first researchers who reported the challenge which the first versions of OT were faced with regarding the opacity phenomenon, and he asserts that the difficulty lies in OT neglecting the intermediate forms between the phonological and phonetic levels. This claim is also supported by McCarthy (2007, p.99), who reports the necessity of considering derivational path of the phonological processes. Urek (2013, p.1), too, reasons that Parallel OT fails to explain opacity since the Generator in this theory is designed to produce the candidates in one attempt. Anttila (2006, p. 893-901) classifies the suggested solutions to the problem of opacity in OT in three sets: "Input-Output Correspondence" theory which was first put forth by Benua (1995, pp. 77-82); "Sympathy Theory" suggested by MacCarthy (1999, 2000); and "Opacity Approach" put forward by Goldrick (2000, p.16). Alqahtani (2020, p. 22) is among the recent researchers who has investigated opacity as the result of counter-bleeding by analyzing examples from colloquial Persian. Also, Hauser and Hughto (2020, p. 29) claim that the general solution to opacity in OT could be found in what they call "contextual faithfulness constraints".
 
2.1. Iranian Studies
Many optimality-theoretic studies have been conducted in Iran on Persian and Kurdish data, among which one can mention those of Bijankhan (2006), Modarresi Ghavami (2011), Heidarpor Bidgoli (2012) in Persian; and Naqshbandi (2011), Fattahi (2012), Zahedi (2014), and Mohammadi (2014) in different dialects of Kurdish. As valuable as these studies are, none deals with the problem of opacity in Optimality Theory.
  
3. Methodology
The data in the present study have been collected in two ways: (1) through interviews with Kermanshahi Persian speakers of two age groups of above fifty and below twenty. The first group was chosen for their tendency towards using this dialect in their daily conversations, and the younger group was chosen as speakers who lean towards Standard Persian for its social prestige. This study, though, does not aim to investigate linguistic variations of these two age groups, but rather tries to identify the alternating forms in the verbal forms with progressive aspect. (2) through linguistic intuition of the researchers of the study, who are themselves, native speakers of Kermanshahi Persian. The collected data were then transcribed and the relevant alternating forms were identified. The last step was to identify the underlying phonological forms in order to decide on the nature and direction of the changes.

4. Discussion and Results
The following table illustrates the alternating forms of the progressive prefix in Kermanshahi Persian.

Table 1
 The Alternative Forms in Progressive Prefix of Kermanshahi Persian Dialog

(1)		mi.-bi.n-am prog. – see – 1S "I see."	(2)	mi.-xɑ.n-am prog. – read – 1S "I read."
(3)		mi.-bu.s-am prog. – kiss – 1S "I kiss."	(4)	mi.-ka.n.-am        prog. – dig – 1S "I dig."
(5)		mi.-ʃu.r-am prog.- wash – 1S "I wash."	(6)	mi.-ke.ʃ-am prog.-pull-1S "I pull."
(7)		mo.- xor.-am prog.-eat-1S "I eat."	(8)	mi.- sɑ.z –am prog.-make-1S "I make."
(9)		mo.- ko.ʃ- i prog.-kill-2S "You kill."	(10)	mo.- ko.n- am prog.-do-1S "I do."
(11)		mo.- xɑ-  m prog.-want-1S "I want."	(12)	mo.- wo.r -am  prog.-cut-1S "I cut."
	* prog.: progressive – 1S: first person singular – 2S: second person singular

As can be seen from the data above, the alternating forms of the progressive prefix are [mi] and [mo], with the latter appearing where there is a round element in the verbal stem. The exception, though, is (11), in which the vowel of the prefix has been rounded without any apparent incentive. To have a better picture of what is going on in this form, we can compare the root with its likely historical form by synchronically comparing it with other Iranian languages and the forms in the history of Persian language. As evident even in the Persian orthography, there used to be the glide /w/ after /x/ sound in the verbal root of "to eat". If we take the /xw/ cluster as the onset of the root, then we can assume the line of the change as below (the verbal ending is removed for simplification):
/mi-xwɑ/ --(vowel rounding)à moxwɑ --(the omission of glide w)à[moxɑ]
  If the glide omission, which is motivated by cluster simplification, was applied earlier than vowel rounding, the process of vowel rounding would be bled by it, leading to the incorrect phonetic form of *[mi-xɑ]; but since the actual order is in the opposite direction, the order of vowel rounding and glide omission is that of counter-bleeding, which causes opacity.
As was cited by many studies in the review section, parallel OT seems unable to choose correct opaque forms, the same is proved about Kermanshahi Persian data.
Tableau 1
 Inability of Parallel Optimality Theory to explain Opacity Phenomenon

Ident (r)	Aligh-left(r)	mi-xwɑ-m
	*	a. mixwɑm
*		b. moxwɑm
		Mc. mixɑm
*		d. moxɑm
Notes: symbol M shows an incorrect winning candidate. - Aligh-left(r) constraint penalizes any candidate with no agreement in rounding - Ident (r) penalizes any candidate with a changed value in the feature [round]

Optimality Theory-Candidate Chains, in addition to valuing the intermediate steps and derivational paths, enjoys a new form constraint that guarantees a fixed order of the application of the processes, namely Prec(A,B), in which constraint B is only violated if constraint A has been violated earlier. We can consider Prec(Ident(r),Max(r)) to penalize any candidate in which: (a) the round element is deleted without the process of vowel rounding having occurred earlier; (b) the round element is deleted and the vowel rounding occurs following that. With this constraint at play, we can consider the steps of derivation as depicted by the following tableaux.

Tableau 2
The First Step of Derivation

Ident (r)	Max (r)	No-Codaprg	Prec(Id,Max)	Complex-Syll	Align-l(r)	mi-xwɑ-m
*		*				Fa. mox.wɑm
	*		*!			b. mi.xɑm
		*			*!	c. mix.wɑm
*				*!		d. mox.wɑm
Notes: Complex-Syll penalizes any candidate in which there is consonant cluster in a syllable - No-Codaprog penalizes any form with a coda in the same syllable as the progressive prefix- Max (r) penalizes any candidate in which a round segment has been deleted (compared with the input)

Tableau 3
 The Second Step of Derivation

Ident (r)	Max (r)	No-Codaprog	Prec(Id,Max)	Complex-Syll	Align-l(r)	mox.wɑm
	*					Fa. mo.xɑm
				*!		b. mo.xwɑm
		*!				c. mox.wɑm
*		*			*!	d. mix.wɑm

Tableau 4
 The Third Step of Derivation and the End of Cycle (Convergence)

Ident (r)	Max (r)	No-Codaprog	Prec(Id,Max)	Complex-Syll	Align-l(r)	mo.xɑm
						Fa. mo.xɑm
				*!		b. mo.xwɑm
		*!				c. mox.wɑm
*!						d. mi.xɑm

In Serial Optimality Theory, which OT-CC is a version of, the Generator is only allowed to produce candidates with one difference from the input. The winner chosen by the Evaluator will then be given to the same tableau, and there again, the Generator produces candidates with only one difference from the new input. This cycle will continue until the winner is the same form as the input – a step which is also called as convergence. This success in choosing the right form as the final winner is all thanks to the gradualness of Serial OT and the Prec constraint, which disqualifies the threatening competing forms Parallel OT was not able to shed out of the competition.
6. Conclusion
Optimality Theory-Candidate Chains proves to be more successful in the case of opacity observed in Kermanshahi Persian progressive prefix than the Parallel version of OT, where the process of choosing the final winner is not gradual and the intermediate forms are not taken into account due to the Generator's permission to produce candidates with any number of differences compared to the input. The gradual nature of OT-CC along with the Prec constraint leads to the choice of the right candidate as the winner. The following tableau, also known as Harmonic Improvement tableau, shows how the winners of the later rounds incur less threatening violations.

Tableau 5
 The Harmonic Improvement in [mo.xɑm]

Ident (r)	Max (r)	No-Codaprog	Prec(Id,Max)	Complex-Syll	Align-l(r)
					*	a. mix.wɑm
*		*				b. mox.wɑm
	*					c. mo.xɑm

In the tableau above, the candidates are the winners of each step of derivation, with each being more harmonic – incurring fewer violations to the higher-ranking constraints – than the previous candidate.

 

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This paper provides an Optimality-Theoretic account of dissimilation in standard Persian as well as some other accents and dialects of Persian. As such, this work starts by introducing Optimality Theory (henceforth OT) and its basic concepts and then it investigates dissimilation in this framework. It argues for the superiority of OT over derivational approaches regarding a case in which both dissimilation and assimilation, with no clear feeding order, are involved.