Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• vahid sadeghi ¹
• Banafshe Mardan ²

¹ Department of English language and linguistics, Faculty of Humanities, Imam Khomeini International University

² M.A. in Linguistics, English Language and Linguistics Department, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran

Abstract

Persian velar glide [w], unlike the palatal glide [j], does not serve a contrastive function in Persian phonology since it has incomplete distribution, occurring only in few words after the mid back vowel /o/. Thus, [w] is described as an allophone of the phoneme /v/. Furthermore, it has been assumed that [w] in [ow] may be deleted in connected speech giving rise to the compensatory lengthening of the preceding [o] vowel. In the present research, we examined the phonetic realization [w] in Persian words in an experimental study. The results suggested that [w] is acoustically present in the target words but is reduced or weakened to different degrees. As [w] is reduced in [ow], the shape of the vocal tract as well as the phonation type changes, resulting in (1) increase of overall intensity of the spectrum; (2) increase in the formant frequencies; and (3) decrease in bandwidths of the formant frequencies. All these systematic acoustic variations cause the vowel [o] in [ow] to be produced and perceived as longer than an ordinary [o] vowel

Keywords

• Velar glide [w]
• Phonological distribution
• Acoustic variations
• Duration
• Weakening