The Phonological process of fortition in some dialects of Isfahan Province

The present study is allocated to the investigation of the phonological process of fortition in some dialects of Isfahan province. In order to accomplish this research, the data of twenty-four dialects which are common in Isfahan province, and especially in Kashan and Natanz regions have been examined. The studied dialects are among the Central dialects of Iran. The phonological process of fortition has different types such as devoicing, stopping, insertion, gemination, etc. Different types of which are used in the studied dialects. In this research, an attempt is made to determine the types of phonological processes of fortition in some dialects of Isfahan, Kashan, and Natanz, and to determine their extent and frequency. It has been also tried to regulate in which contexts and places the fortition process takes places. The current research method is descriptive-analytical one. Some of the results of this research are: 1) The most frequent phonetic process of fortition in the examined dialects is devoicing. 2) Stopping is the second common strengthening process in these dialects. 3) The phonetic process of insertion is also a very common phenomenon in the studied dialects, and consonant insertion is more frequent than vowel insertion.