This article examines the process of consonant epenthesis in Azerbaijani Turkish language (Tabrizi dialect) based on optimality theory (standard approach). To do this research 90 Turkish words and 50 borrowed words were collected from the speakers of this language. The purpose of the present study is to determine under what phonological conditions consonant, epenthesis takes place and what the active markedness constraints in explaining the mentioned process are. Data analysis shows that in this language, when adding a suffix consisting a (vowel) phoneme with [+high] vowel is inserted to stem or the preceding suffix, the consonant /n/ and when adding a (vowel) phoneme or several (a consonant + a vowel) phonemes is inserted with [-high] vowel to the stem or preceding suffix /j/ consonant. Analysis of data indicates that in the mentioned phonological conditions, when hiatus vowel occurrence, ONSET markedness dominates DEP reliability constraint, and the constraints introduced with a fixed rating can easily explain the consonant epenthesis process.

This article studies different strategies applied in the Azarbaijani Turkish for resolving vowel hiatus. Because Azarbaijani Turkish is an agglutinative language and in this type of languages, it is common to add several affixes to stems, by adding suffixes to stems and other suffixes and also by making compound words, vowel hiatus may occur. The data related to vowel hiatus in this language (Meshkin Shahr dialect) were collected and treated using optimality theory. The results of data revealed that according to morphological, phonological and semantic condition, different phonological patterns are used to avoid V+V sequences. In making compound words, V1 is deleted, in adding monophonemic suffixes to stems or The preceding suffix, epenthesis occurs, in adding complex suffixes with [+high] vowels, V2 (suffix vowel) is deleted and in adding complex suffixes with [-high] vowels, epenthesis occurs. Results of this research show that in this language, the onset of stem is prominent and V is preserved in this position, in addition to preserve its semantic and grammatical role, it is impossible to delete monophonemic suffixes.

1. INTRODUCTION The most common plural markers in Persian are /-hɑ, / and /-ɑ, n/. The former is mostly used in speech and the latter is more common in writing (MacKenzie, 1961, p. 50,Rokhzadi, 2011, p. 128). It has different forms in some Persian dialects influenced by phonetic factors. This research aims at investigating the plural marker in Ghayeni Persian within Stratal optimality theory (SOT) (Kiparsky, 1998a, 2000). In SOT, there are (at least) two layers. The order of the constraints between the layers can be different, which predicts the opaque relation between the input and the final output. In SOT, the output of each layer enters the next layer as the input along with the special affixes of that layer (if any), and this process continues until the final output is produced. In Ghayeni Persian, which is spoken in the city of Ghayen in the province of South Khorasan, the suffix /-hɑ, / is not used at all, and the plural /-ɑ, n/ is present only in the phonological representation. None of the plural markers of standard Persian are observed in the Pronunciation of Ghayeni plural nouns. If the plural form of a word is expressed alone or the followed word or morpheme begins with a consonant, the consonant /n/ in the plural morpheme is deleted. The plural /n/ is not deleted in some cases. In this study, the phonological behavior of the plural marker is examined in words that end in consonant. The previous researches that have studied the plural marker in Persian have not examined the pronunciation of the plural from this point of view...

This study accounts for the acquisition of the consonant clusters of English syllable structures both in onset and coda positions by Persian EFL learners. Persian syllable structure is "CV (CC)", composed of one consonant at the initial position and two optional consonants at the final position; whereas English syllable structure is "(CCC) V (CCCC)". Therefore, Persian EFL learners need to resolve the conflict between what they know (L1), and what they are learning (L2). optimality theory (Prince and Smolensky, 1993) claims that the knowledge of language consists of the universal set of structural descriptions and a language-particular ranking of constraints. It provides an explicit account for not only why learners have difficulty with specific EFL structures but also how they resolve it.40 participants of two levels of English proficiency participated in this study. The data were collected via two tasks.The first task was a sound comprehension test and the second was a production test. The analyzed data revealed that all the learners had difficulties in performing initial consonant clusters in English; however, the lower level learners significantly had more deficiencies. It is worth mentioning that those coda clusters composed of more than two consonants are more difficult than those composed of only two consonants. This study also revealed that epenthesis was more frequent in onset positions while deletion and substitution were more frequent in coda positions. Based on the findings of the study, English instructors and material developers can estimate the degree of difficulty of consonant clusters and provide the needed time and material for teaching them.

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...

The present paper studies breaking of initial consonant clusters of English loanwords which results in changing of syllable structure in Persian. The research data were collected from three famous dictionaries-Anvari (1386), Moshiri (1371), Zomorrodian (1384). The theoretical framework of the present research is optimality theory, a constraint based approach, which was presented in Generative Grammar in 1993 by Prince and Smolensky. In this research, we are going to answer the question: How can optimality theory analyzes the changing of syllable structure of loanwords in Persian? The results show that Persian language follows a series of faithfulness and markedness constraints to obtain optimal outputs and by vowel epenthesis (initial and mediate), breakes the consonant clusters and changes the syllable structure. The main reason of vowel epenthesis in the present paper has been considered assimilation process.

The present study is an attempt to investigate the morpho-phonological clitics in the Tati dialect of Takestan in the light of optimality theory. Morpho-phonological processes are phonological changes occurring in a morphological context, i. e., those that happen between morphemes. They are phonologically governed. The research was analytical and the data were collected from Tati books and local media. This study probes into the application of the morpho-phonological processes in the clitics of the Takestani Tati dialect from an optimality theory point of view. The results illustrated that in Tati, both elision and insertion processes happen in morphological borders, highlighting conspiracy in this language. In other words, this study concluded that the global ranking constraints also apply to Tati and the constraints in the Tati dialect were in line with the universal ones. The present study can add to the linguistic scope and knowledge of scholars, further acquainting the researchers with the morpho-phonological processes of the Tati dialect and its adaptation to the universalities of this realm.

The present study was an attempt to investigate the morphological Clitics and Final consonant Ellison in Takestan Tati dialect in the light of optimality theory. Morphological processes of phonological changes occur in a morphological contexts, those changes happened among morphemes, and are phonologically governed. The research was analytical and the data were collected from Tati books and local media. This study probed into the application of the morphological processes in Takesteni Tati dialect Clitics and Final consonant Ellison from optimality point of view. The results illustrated that in Tati both elision and insertion processes happened in morphological borders, highlighting conspiracy in this language. In other words, this study concluded that the global ranking restrictions also apply to Tati and the constraints in Tati dialect were in line with global ones. The present study could be added to the linguistic scope and knowledge of scholars, acquainting the researchers more with morphological processes of Tati dialect and its adaptation to the universalities of this realm.

This study presents an overview of phonological adaptation of loanwords in Azerbaijani Turkish Language by breaking up the initial clusters. The syllable structure of Azerbaijani Turkish Language is CV(C)(C). That is ONSET is obligatory in this language, and there should be a consonant at the beginning of the word. But the initial cluster is forbidden and *COMPONS is considered in high priority. So, if a loanword with initial cluster appears in this language, it should be broken up with different repair strategies such as: vowel epenthesis, resyllabification and deletion of short vowels or some consonants to adapt the syllable structure of this language. The most frequently applied repair strategy in Azerbaijani Turkish Language is vowel epenthesis that can be in two kinds both anaptyxis and prothesis. There are various theories about the site of epenthesis, that is where the vowel should be inserted,at the beginning of cluster or a position between the consonants. Just Fleischhacker’s theory (2001, 2005) accounts for the epenthesis in Azerbaijani Turkish Language. She says that the epenthesis is based on maximal perceptual similarity between input and output. The site of epenthesis is investigated in optimality theory that is an appropriate theory in this case.

This study examines the pronunciation errors of English consonant clusters among Iraqi EFL learners through the lens of optimality theory (OT).  For this aim, 40 first-year university students of different majors aged 18-25 years were selected from beginner and lower-intermediate levels based on their scores on Oxford Placement Test. Using different instruments, such as reading instruction and read-aloud test, and being informed from the category of major pronunciation problems by Arabic learners presented by Yavaş (2011), an optimality theory-based analysis was adopted in the research. Findings indicated that in pronouncing initial clusters of two consonants, *COMPLEX onset as the high-ranked constraint is frequently violated in Iraqi Arabic (IA), because in IA there are many words started with #CCV. Also, *#CCC is never violated in IA. Since constraints are universal, languages differ only in how they rank them. In pronouncing a coda cluster consisting of two consonants, although *CCcoda is never violated in IA, this constraint is not permuted in the pronunciation of the participants. However, to pronounce words with the structure of VCCC(C)#, it seems that the two low-ranked constraints, namely *CCCCcoda and *CCCcoda in English are permuted to high-ranked constraints in the pronunciation of IA learners.