Abstract
In this paper, Persian learners' syllabification of English word-initial and word-final consonant clusters was tested on the basis of the structural differences between their representations and different phonotactic constraints in both English and Persian. For this purpose, twelve children between the ages of 4-6 were experimented on by using 53 pseudo-words designed for this particular study. These pseudo-words were formed by taking into account the English phonotactic constraints. The production of the learners were recorded and transcribed. The results of this study indicate that onset clusters were mainly re-syllabified by epenthesis while the coda clusters mainly by deletion indicting transfer (negative) from Persian to English in the initial state of interlanguage.
Highlights
English is supposed to be an international language which is learnt by speakers of different languages due to a variety of reasons
Due to having different phonological rules, different languages may lead to re-syllabification of words being learnt
Due to different phonotactic constraints in both languages with regards to consonant clusters, Persian learners' of English may re-syllabify the words in English based on phonological constraints of Persian
Summary
English is supposed to be an international language which is learnt by speakers of different languages due to a variety of reasons. Due to having different phonological rules, different languages may lead to re-syllabification of words being learnt. This re-syllabification is systematic and not random i.e. it happens in accordance with the phonological rules of the learners' first language (or languages previously learned) at least in their initial state. Due to different phonotactic constraints in both languages with regards to consonant clusters, Persian learners' of English may re-syllabify the words in English based on phonological constraints of Persian. This process could lead into either deletion of some consonant or epenthesis of a vowel sound between two consonants in a consonant cluster. To understand why the learners re-syllabify, firstly the principles governing the phonological constraints in general will be mentioned and the phonotactic properties of both the languages will be discussed
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