محدودیت عملکرد فرایند ارتقاء واکه /ɑ/ قبل از خیشومی‌ها در زبان فارسی

Extended Abstract

The current research aims at studying a frequent phonological process. A sort of vowel-consonant harmony which acts when the vowel /ɑ/ followed by a nasal consonant. The process results in the vowel raising may or may not act in many Persian words. This article deals with the Persian words, having the required phonological circumstances, but Persian speakers do not raise their vowels. Many university students of linguistics and language look for the reasons and it needs a more detailed study. So, the main aim of the current research based on discovering the reasons and finding out the words in which the vowel raising do not take place. The research method is a survey, qualitative content analysis and the data included in 110 words gathered by purposive sampling from books and libraries documents, to make a questionnaire. The questionnaire includes a self-statement form to fill with different variables like age, sex, location, first language and place of birth. The interviewees include 150 speakers who are fluent in standard Persian. The speakers picked up randomly from those who are at the age range of 25-65. The speakers' pronunciation recorded and registered in the general field surveying method. The raising of the vowel /ɑ/ before nasals, which is frequent in Persian, is a phonological context-oriented process. It may occur in some words and may not in some others with the same phonological context. The main question is that, why such a frequent process does not cover all corresponding Persian words? The research shows that many words as /xɑne/, /ʃɑne/, /lɑne/, /dɑne/,/xjɑbɑn/, /bjɑbɑn/, /ɂoʃɑn/, /bɑdemdjɑn/, /fendjɑn/, /hamɑm/, /dɑmɑd/, /djɑn/, /harɑm/, /bɑrɑn/, /divɑne/, /rejhɑn/, /mejdɑn/, /pejmɑne/ and …may take vowel raising before consonants, while the words with correpomding phonological context like /bɑnk/, /tɑnk/, /lisɑns/, /ɂɑlmɑn/, /sɑsɑn/, /mehrɑn/, /ɂafsɑne/, /ʃɑm/, /nɑm/, /ʃahrɑm/, /bahrɑm/, /negarɑn/, /sɑzmɑn/, /dɑneʃcade/, /ɂemɑm/, /ɂɑbɑn/, and … do not. Although men and women phonetic differences might be proved by various researches, but the current study proof, shows no effective difference in between. The study based on phonological barriers not on the features of geographical dialects. Considering the Qazvinian accent as a language type is just a proof, in which the very frequent feature is avoiding the vowel (/ɑ/) raising before nasals, shows that the frequency of the words is a critical feature in the current study. In such an accent, the speakers rarely raise the vowel /ɑ/ before nasals, but they raise it in a very frequent word like /nɑn/ and pronunce it as /nun/. In many of the closed class of words like demonstrative, object or possessive and clitic pronouns, adverbs, and plural maker morphemes as /-ɑn/, /ɑn/, /ɂin/, /hamɑn/, and transitive maker morphemes in words like /ceʃɑnd/, /pitʃɑnd/, the vowel is still raises. The old Arabic loanwords previously entered and used in Persian, like /tamɑm/, /harɑm/, /hamɑm/, may take the vowel raising, while those newly used words as /zemɑm/, /ɂemcɑn/, /ɂescɑn/ may not, because the vowel raising make their pronunciation unfamiliar or similar to a part of taboo words. The process is also do not take into effect in Turkish, Mongolian or even European words like /xɑn/, /tumɑn/, /bank/, /lisɑns/, /tɑnk/, while some of the words may take additional phonological process or taking other reasons to block the vowel raising. The new word forms and the words corresponding to special fields as education, health and medicine as in /dabestɑn/, /dabirestɑn/, /dɑneʃcade/, /bimɑrestɑn/, /honarestɑn/ and /ɂɑrɑmestɑn/ the vowel do not raise, while in an older word as /qabrestɑn/, with the same meaning and phonological context, it may raise. The outcomes also show that in newly made proper names and nouns like /ɂafsɑne/, /parvɑne/, /mehrɑn/,and /mɑhɑn/, the gradually formed geographical names like /ɂirɑn/, /ɂɑlmɑn/,and /junɑn/ or the newly made city names like /ɂɑbɑdɑn/, /semnɑn/, /tɑleqɑn/, /cɑʃɑn/ the vowel do not rasises before nasals, although it may raise in the same words by the speakers who adopt a dialect-oriented language type as in /tehrun/ instead of /tehrɑn/ and /ɂirun/ instead of /ɂirɑn/ in old Tehrani accent. The most important results refer to the point that the vowel (/ɑ/) raising before nasals stopped years ago. The phonological context needed for such a raising is not the only necessity. The stress and its position on the specific syllable (final or penultimate) is not enough for the process to take into effect. Those words corresponding in education, technology, administration, and any respective loanwords appeared in modern era, are not supposed to be accompanied by vowel raising in pronunciation, caused by the sequence of /ɑ/ and nasals.

Keywords: Vowel raising, blocking rule, vowel harmony, nasal consonant, assimilation

References

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