Hiatus Resolution Strategies in Persian

Hiatus is a situation in which there is no consonant between the nuclei of two adjacent syllables. It occurs when the left syllable lacks a coda while the right one lacks an onset. Hiatus occurs in underlying representation or at a level between underlying and phonetic representations. Its occurrence is expected in every language, but its resolution is obligatory in languages which require syllables to have onsets. Strategies such as intervocalic consonant insertion, vowel deletion, vowel coalescence, diphthong formation, and glide formation are usually used to resolve hiatus. In this research the conditions and possibilities of using each strategy in Persian are discussed. However, only those strategies which are employed in this language are analyzed using Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky, 1993/2004).The ultimate goal of this research is to come up with a single inclusive ranking of constraints which explains all the hiatus resolving strategies in Persian. The results section of this research includes ten facts about the processes and strategies used in resolving hiatus in Persian.