Hiatus resolution in Persian: The case of [ɟ]-epenthesis
Hiatus resolution in Persian: The case of [ɟ]-epenthesis
Author(s): Amir Ghorbanpour, Aliyeh K. Z. Kambuziya, Mohammad Dabir-Moghaddam, Ferdows Agha-GolzadehSubject(s): Language studies
Published by: Akadémiai Kiadó
Keywords: phonology; vowel hiatus; consonant epenthesis; Optimality theory; Persian
Summary/Abstract: This paper analyses the case of hiatus resolution in the /e-i/ and /e-ɑ/ environments in tetrasyllabic words in Persian, within an Optimality-theoretic framework. Hiatus is avoided in Persian by the insertion of an epenthetic consonant which varies considerably depending on the morpho-phonemic environment in which hiatus occurs. It is argued that the insertion of [ɟ] as a hiatus-resolving consonant in Persian is historically driven. We follow Naderi and van Oostendorp (2011) in assuming that the hiatus-resolving [ɟ] is actually a latent segment at the end of bases ending in /e/ – in some words as a relic from the Middle (Pahlavi) Persian and in others as a matter of analogy – surfacing only in certain morpho-phonemic contexts. We argue that the two hiatus-resolving consonants realised in an /e-i/ environment in Persian – i.e., the phonetically-driven [ʔ] and the historically-driven [ɟ] – are in complementary distribution depending on the grammatical class of the output word. Within an OT framework, we aimed to achieve a unified explanation and a set order of constraints active for hiatus resolution in the /e-i/ and /e-ɑ/ environments.
- Issue Year: 66/2019
- Issue No: 1
- Page Range: 69-84
- Page Count: 16
- Language: English
- Content File-PDF