consonant clusters

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.

Rostam city is one of the cities of Fars province. With the exception of two villages in this city, the dialect of the rest of the people of the city, is Lori. The number of villages studied is 59 ones. The research method was a combination of field and descriptive methods and linguistic materials were collected by guided collection method. The questionnaire of this research is based on the national project of Atlas language, which includes 105 words and phrases and 36 sentences. Data were transliterated after the interview using the International Phonetic Alphabet. Some words of this dialect are completely different from standard Persian, some have only a different pronunciation and some are completely the same. There are five types of syllables in this dialect, which are: cv, cvc, cvcc, ccv, ccvc. Also, in this dialect, vowel extension causes semantic differentiation in some cases. The order of adjectives, and nouns is the same as in Persian, except the ones in some cases, [e] are omitted.  The plural sign in this dialect is [-æl], added to the end of the nouns. The definite article is / -æku / and / -ku / added to the end of the definite nouns.

Gilaki is a member of the northwestern Iranian language branch, spoken in Gilan Province.  In this article, the sonority sequencing principle is described in Eastern Gilaki syllables. The sonority sequencing principle (SSP) states that the syllable nucleus constitutes a sonority peak that is preceded or followed by a sequence of consonants with progressively decreasing sonority values. The vowels are the most sonorous segments and form the peak or nucleus of each syllable.  The more sonorous segments are closer to the peak and the less sonorous ones are further away from it.  In this research 980 CVCC lexical items were obtained among 23,660 words. The sequence of coda clusters was presented in separate tables based on the syllable's vowels. The results showed that the syllable structure in Gilaki is CV(C)(C) in which the presence of one consonant in the onset position and a vowel in the nucleus is obligatory, and having one or two consonants in coda position is optional. Also, the consonant expression in the syllable-final cluster shows that the principle of the sequencing sonority is confirmed in some data, and in some others, it has been violated. In most syllables where the CC cluster is closed by glides [l, r], nasals [n, m], and fricatives [s, z, f], the reproduction principle has been violated.

The present study investigates and explains the consonants and vowels, the syllable structure, and also the consonantal clusters in the Laki dialect of Kouhdasht. The research method is analytic–descriptive. The data in this study was collected through field study by recording the speech of speakers with an average age of 30-70 years. In addition, we have used one of the writer's linguistic intuition who is the native speaker of this dialect as well as the written sources in this connection.  The data has been transcribed according to the International Phonetic Alphabet "IPA". The results of the research indicate that the phonological system of this dialect has 27 consonants. The dialect list of vowels also consists of nine simple vowels and six compound vowels. The syllable structure in this dialect is C (C) V (C) (C). Also, in this dialect, there are no more than two consonant clusters, either at the beginning or at the end of the syllable. The research results show that in the mentioned dialect in syllable structures with one consonant in their onset, the consonants /L, ŋ, r/ cannot occur at the onset of a syllable, and in syllable constructions with two consonants at the beginning, the second consonant can only be /w/ or /y/ and no other consonant can be.

Sonority determines the legal syllable structure of a language and triggers applying some phonological processes in order to retain the appropriate syllable pattern. All Turkic languages exhibit five different strategies/consonant cluster processes (metathesis, weakening, degemination, deletion and epenthesis) which are sonority-driven and arise through the interaction of markedness and faithfulness constraints. By considering a full range of data from Azeri and Turkish languages within the framework of optimality theoretic phonology we found that high ranking sonority constraints such as syllable contact law, sonority sequence principle, and sonority angle affect the clusters of loanwords and native words through different phonological processes. In fact these various phonological processes are used to improve syllable structure and save a segment from deletion. While in these languages words can end in two consonants, glide/liquid-nasal and glide-liquid sequences in spite of having rising sonority are not possible. Although coda sonorants may not be broken by a vowel epenthesis due to an OCP effect because /r/-obstruent and /n/-obstruent (ʣ) sequences are also not preferred in casual speech. In this paper, in the light of evidence from Turkic languages, issues like inserting and omitting of vowel within the rising sonority medial clusters, Prothesis and Anaptyxis in onset clusters, vowel epenthesis in rising and falling sonority final clusters, and consonant deletion in pre-consonantal coda position are considered within the framework of optimality theoretic phonology to show that the motivation for vowel insertion in word initial consonant clusters is to observe *Complexons, the epenthesis site (within the cluster or at the word-edge) is determined by the high ranking sonority constraints And also to show that the sonority advantage of a glide or a liquid over a nasal is insufficient to override Dep-Io. So what triggers the variable behavior of Turkish, Lebanese Arabic, Irish, Chaha, Catalan clusters is the Sonority Angel formed by the contours /CC/ and [CV]. Finally we observe that homorganic clusters are perceptually marked. That is a consonant which has few feature distinguishing it in place or manner from a preceding consonant is perceptually indistinct and is less suitable than a more contrastive consonant for maintaining lexical contrasts. Moreover we have to note that In Azeri the occurrence of coda-onset sequences across a syllable boundary subjects to the Syllable Contact Law (the optimal intervocalic consonant cluster is the one that terminates the first syllable with high sonority and starts the next syllable with low sonority). Thus Azeri applies some strategies to optimize the syllable contact. All clusters violating syllable contact are reordered, and broken up by epenthesis. Metathesis which can be explained in terms of phonological system rather than phonetical system is regular and productive in the language in question and links synchronic studies to diachronic ones.

Similarity avoidance- as a perceptual factor- is the basis of the phonotactics of a variety of languages. Stop consonants are considered to be ideal candidates for deletion as they have intrinsically weak perceptual cues, especially in final position. The present research study sought to explore the relationship between the probability of final stop deletion in consonantal clusters and the degree of similarity between such stops and the other member of the cluster in Persian. To do so, all final consonantal clusters were analyzed considering the degree of similarity in voicing, place, and manner of articulation between the two consonants of the cluster. Data analysis demonstrated that the chance for the deletion of final stops increases as the similarity between the stop and the previous consonant in the cluster increases and that all three parameters of voicing, place, and manner are important in this regard. Patterns of final stop deletion in final clusters of Persian were analyzed using a perception-based approach within Optimality Theory framework, where markedness constraints rule out outputs that are perceptually weak and faithfulness constraints prevent any change in a perceptually strong input.