A Study of Metathesis and OCP in Persian based on non-linear phonology

Metathesis occurs when، due to some different factors، phonological segments exchange their linear order. The analysis developed in the framework of autosegmental phonology and optimality theory highlight the major role of Attraction Principle and Obligatory Contour Principle in activating metathesis which stimulates some other phonological processes such as feature coalescence، deletion، compensatory lengthening and dissimilation in return to provide optimal forms in Persian. Results illustrate that [+son] consonants، especially /r/ and glottal consonants /h/ and /? / as well as [+cont] consonants، i. e fricatives، more than others are attracted by the source، i. e. vowels which causes metathesis. The phonological behavior of glottal consonants in metathesis provides some evidence for their sonoracity. In this paper، besides feature coalescence، deletion and dissimilation are also introduced as the consequences of OCP.