Golnaz Modarresi Ghavami; Sahand Elhami Khorasani
Abstract
Similarity avoidance- as a perceptual factor- is the basis of the phonotactics of a variety of languages. Stop consonants are considered to be ideal candidates for deletion as they have intrinsically weak perceptual cues, especially in final position. The present research study sought to explore the ...
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Similarity avoidance- as a perceptual factor- is the basis of the phonotactics of a variety of languages. Stop consonants are considered to be ideal candidates for deletion as they have intrinsically weak perceptual cues, especially in final position. The present research study sought to explore the relationship between the probability of final stop deletion in consonantal clusters and the degree of similarity between such stops and the other member of the cluster in Persian. To do so, all final consonantal clusters were analyzed considering the degree of similarity in voicing, place, and manner of articulation between the two consonants of the cluster. Data analysis demonstrated that the chance for the deletion of final stops increases as the similarity between the stop and the previous consonant in the cluster increases and that all three parameters of voicing, place, and manner are important in this regard. Patterns of final stop deletion in final clusters of Persian were analyzed using a perception-based approach within Optimality Theory framework, where markedness constraints rule out outputs that are perceptually weak and faithfulness constraints prevent any change in a perceptually strong input. Keywords: Stop consonant deletion, Consonant clusters, Optimality Theory, Similarity avoidance, Persian phonotactics.
Golnaz Modarresi Ghavami
Abstract
In western linguistics, ‘juncture’ is a technical term in phonetics which has its roots in American structuralism. Besides phonetics, the term is especially important in the areas of speech perception in psycholinguistics, text to speech conversion, and speech recognition in computational ...
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In western linguistics, ‘juncture’ is a technical term in phonetics which has its roots in American structuralism. Besides phonetics, the term is especially important in the areas of speech perception in psycholinguistics, text to speech conversion, and speech recognition in computational linguistics. In Persian phonetics and phonology, the equivalent chosen for the term ‘juncture’ has led to the misconception that it is equal to ‘pause’. This article is a review of some influential works in western linguistics, with the purpose of determining the exact meaning of the term ‘juncture’ and the phonetic features that are discussed under the title of juncture. It is argued that the chosen equivalent in Persian is not appropriate, as it implies the meaning of ‘pause’ and this is not the intended meaning of juncture in western linguistics. Showing a number of phonetic features that mark the boundaries of grammatical units in Persian, the equivalent of ‘boundary’ is suggested as a replacement.
Abstract
In certain languages, vowel quality changes in unstressed syllables. In acoustic phonetics, this characteristic, namely vowel 'undershoot' under certain conditions and the tendency to centralize, is referred to as 'vowel reduction'. Previous researches have shown that Persian vowel space reduces and ...
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In certain languages, vowel quality changes in unstressed syllables. In acoustic phonetics, this characteristic, namely vowel 'undershoot' under certain conditions and the tendency to centralize, is referred to as 'vowel reduction'. Previous researches have shown that Persian vowel space reduces and is centralized in unaccented syllables and as a result have considered the change in vowel quality to be an acoustic correlate of lexical stress in Persian. The present paper is an investigation of the effect of stress on the duration and quality of simple vowels in accented and unaccented open syllables of bisyllabic words in the speech of 14 female and male speakers of Persian. Results showed a reduction of vowel duration in unaccented syllables, but no reduction or centralization of vowel space. Rather, the vowel space was larger in unaccented syllables. Vowel quality changed, but this change was not statistically significant for all vowels. Previous research has shown that a reduction in vowel duration is not necessarily accompanied by vowel undershoot, as articulators can move faster to achieve ideal vowel quality under time limitations. Thus, vowel reduction cannot be considered as an acoustic correlate of lexical stress in Persian, since besides stress, many other factors, including speaking style, syllable type, word length and type, influence vowel quality.
