Consonant Insertion Process in Tabrizi Dialect within Optimality Theory Framework

This article examines the process of consonant epenthesis in Azerbaijani Turkish language (Tabrizi dialect) based on optimality theory (standard approach). To do this research 90 Turkish words and 50 borrowed words were collected from the speakers of this language. The purpose of the present study is to determine under what phonological conditions consonant, epenthesis takes place and what the active markedness constraints in explaining the mentioned process are. Data analysis shows that in this language, when adding a suffix consisting a (vowel) phoneme with [+high] vowel is inserted to stem or the preceding suffix, the consonant /n/ and when adding a (vowel) phoneme or several (a consonant + a vowel) phonemes is inserted with [-high] vowel to the stem or preceding suffix /j/ consonant. Analysis of data indicates that in the mentioned phonological conditions, when hiatus vowel occurrence, ONSET markedness dominates DEP reliability constraint, and the constraints introduced with a fixed rating can easily explain the consonant epenthesis process.