The Study of Lenition Processes in Lori Baghmalek Variety: Autosegmental Phonology

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to describe and analyze some of the phonological processes of lenition including spirantization, assimilation, deletion, and compensatory lengthening based on the principles of autosegmental phonology, i.e. spreading and delinking (McCarthy, 1988) in Lori Baghmalek variety. The method of this research is descriptive-analytical. To this end, 10 men at the age of 60-65 years and 4 women at the age of 50-55 years were selected randomly and data were collected using free speech recording, interviewing, and available library resources about Lori Baghmalek variety. Then collected data were transcribed by using the IPA and the existing phonological processes were extracted and classified based on the division made by Kul (2007). Then, the analysis of the rules was done following principles of autosegmental phonology. The results of the research showed that the spreading process is realized in the form of spirantization and assimilation processes and the delinking process is manifested only in the form of consonant deletion. Finally, the analysis of the data indicated that non-linear autosegmental phonology has the necessary explanatory adequacy for the explanation and representation of the phonological processes of spirantization, assimilation, deletion, and compensatory lengthening in Lori Baghmalek variety.