Investigating weakening processes in Sistani dialect based on Optimality Procedure

The purpose of this study is to describe and to analyze some phonological processes of weakness based on optimality theory in the Sistani dialect. The method used in this research is descriptive and analytical one. For this purpose, 10 old, illiterate, male, and rural speakers were randomly selected and the linguistic data collected by using free speech recordings, available library resources, and their interviews. Then, the found data extracted from the recorded sentences and the data registered according to the international alphabet phonetic system. After that, phonological processes of weakening in the Sistani dialect were classified. In the next step, the constraints extracted based on optimality phonology. Finally, the limitations extracted from each phonological process were described and analyzed in special tables of optimality theory. Based on the analysis, it can be concluded that the phonological processes of weakening in the Sistani dialect can be analyzed based on optimality theory. This study showed that the most faithfulness constraints of weakening processes were violated in this dialect. There were anti-deletion constraint (MAX) and the similarity constraint of the features of place and manner of articulation IDENT (place & manner). Likewise, the presence of consonant clusters and the existence of the CODA in this dialect produces a marked structure. Finally, it can be concluded that there were markedness constraints that played a role in determining the optimal output and are ranked higher than the faithfulness constraints.