A Moraic Analysis of Compensatory Lengthening in Kermanshahi Persian

The present study aims at investigating the process of compensatory lengthening in Kermanshahi Persian. According to the moraic theory, if a unit in the base layer or temporal manner has Mora, and that unit is removed in the phonological layer, its mora remains free in the layers of the mora or temporal, and thus compensatory lengthening takes place to maintain syllable or word weight. This paper is devoted to investigating two types of compensatory lengthening: one resulting from the deletion of a moraic consonant and the other being triggered through vowel deletion. The compensatory lengthening caused by the second case leads to gemination. However, the compensatory lengthening does not occur only in the vowel, but by removing the vowel, the adjoining consonant suffers compensatory lengthening.