Description and analysis of the consonant omission process in Bakhtiyari dialect based on the framework of optimality theory

Omission refers to the elision of a segment during the production of a speech sound. Deletion of a segment usually occurs in initial, medial, or final positions of a word. Complete deletion of a segment included a consonant or a vowel regarded as one of the most common universal processes in phonology. Considering this fact, the present research aims at investigating the "deletion" process in Bakhtiyari dialect in Izeh. To get this end, the required data collected by field study via recording the sample data from speakers (age range between 60 to 70 years). Collected data were classified and transcribed. Descriptive –analytical method was used to analyze them within the theoretical framework of optimality. The results of our analysis showed dominating constraints on the optimal candidates during analyzing the process of segment deletion in Bakhtiyari dialect. In the process of omission, the optimal candidates selected in Bakhtiyari dialect by observing the "markedness constraints" and receiving the least penalization from the faithful limitation in the surface level. Thus, in this dialect, markedness constraints play the fundamental role in determining the optimal output dominates over the other constraints.