Syllabic Prominence in Isfahani Persian Accent

The aim of the present study was to examine one of the suprasegmental features called syllabic prominence in Isfahani accent. In order to achieve this goal, the effect of variables of base frequency, intensity and duration in creation of syllabic prominence has been investigated. In order to do this study, eighteen standard Persian words were selected in a way that all six simple vowels (three short vowels and three long vowels) were in the same consonant proximity in all three initial, middle and final positions of the words. Then these words have been pronounced twice; alone and again in the form of a carrier sentence by eleven native speakers of Isfahani who were in the age group of 40 to 50 years. The speakers' voices were recorded by a SONY Model X recorder and then audiologically fragmented in Pratt software, the values ​​of each variable were extracted and statistically analyzed in SPSS software. The findings of this study showed that in the Isfahani accent, the place of base frequency in the words of two and three syllables was first syllable, the place of duration was last syllable, and the place of intensity was before the last syllable. Comparison between two levels of word and sentence showed that there was no significant difference in the variables of basic frequency and intensity, but the variable of duration was more at the level of word than the level of sentence.