Ilam Kurdish dialect type determined by measuring the VOT

Among the voicing cues, Voice Onset Time (VOT) is one of the most important. Voice Onset Time (VOT) is a term which was innovated by Abramson and Lisker (1964) and it is so called as the duration of the time period between the releasing of a plosive and the beginning of vocal fold vibration. This period is usually measured in milliseconds (ms). In this research, VOT was examined as a feature in voicing distinction at two positions (initial and intervocalic) through articulatory tests. Some Ilami Kurdish words were collected by recording the speech of five male and five female speakers. The results showed that VOT is one of the most prominent cues for the voicing distinction. The findings showed that Ilami Kurdish dialect is among languages which use two non-adjacent categories {voices} and {voiceless aspirated} to show voicing distinction. Because of survival of aspiration phenomenon at mentioned positions, we can say that the speakers of Ilami prefer the Articulatory Uniformity Principle over the Articulatory Ease Principle.