A Moraic Analysis of the Syllable Structure in Five-Syllable Persian Words

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Associate Professor of linguistics, University of Tarbiat Modares. Tehran. Iran (Corresponding Author)

2 Associate Professor of linguistics, Organization of Educational Research and Planning. Tehran, Iran.

3 Phd in linguistics, Expert, Organization of Educational Research and Planning. Tehran, Iran.

10.22075/jlrs.2024.34321.2478

Abstract

This descriptive-analytical research aims to investigate the syllable structure of five-syllable words in the Persian language. In so doing, data were collected using the library method to study all of the five-syllable words in the one-volume Persian dictionary Farhang Rooz-e Sokhan (2004), and a corpus consisting of 1574 five-syllable words was extracted. The collected data have been studied regarding the types of syllable patterns used in the structure of words, paying attention to the effect of word formation and re-syllabification processes on the phonotactic arrangement and their moraic weight. According to the results, 62 syllable patterns have been identified in the structure of the studied words. Even though the frequency of the words with a closed syllable without a consonant cluster is higher in number due to the placement of closed syllables in different positions, the dominant syllable pattern belongs to the words with five open syllables and 1-2-1-2-2 moraic weight. The imposed restrictions were aimed at increasing the number of open and light syllables and reducing the consonant clusters. The frequency of open syllables is significantly higher than that of closed syllables, and word-formation processes such as derivation and affixation have played a role in it. However, the frequency of heavy syllables consisting of two or more moras is higher than that of light syllables with one mora. The derivational process of changing the closed syllable to an open one is related to a reduction in the syllable weight and the presence of extra-heavy syllables containing consonant clusters in words.

Keywords

References

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Journal Of Linguistic and Rhetorical Studies
Volume 16, Issue 40
In Progress
June 2025
Pages 65-98

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