Articles
Publication Date: 2025
Language Related Research (23223081)16(6)pp. 115-143
Sound substitution is a process whereby a phoneme in a loanword is replaced by its closest phone in the borrowing language. Many English loanwords with consonants /T/, /w/, /k/ and /g/ have been adapted by Persian. None of these consonants exist as a phoneme in Persian. The pronunciation or substitution of these consonants by their closest phone in Persian depends on the phonological environment; the dental /T/ is replaced by [t] and [s] respectively in the onset and coda. The bilabial /w/ is replaced by [v] in the onset. However, since [w] is only used as an intervocalic consonant in Persian, it acts like an intervocalic consonant upon the declusterization of word initial /sw/. Therefore, it is not usually replaced by any consonant in this environment. Finally, the velar consonants /k/ and /g/ either change to palatal [c] and [Š] respectively or do not change at all, due to the phonological environment. This research aimed to explain each of these sound substitution processes within the framework of optimality theory (Prince and Smolensky, 1993/2004). It presents arguments in favor of constraint rankings which cause the occurances of these processes. © 2026, Tarbiat Modares University. All rights reserved.
Publication Date: 2025
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (15208524)158(6)pp. 4294-4307
Fricatives vary acoustically across languages and individuals, with speaker variability shaped by both phonetic and non-phonetic factors. This study examined between- and within-speaker variability in Persian voiceless fricatives (/f/, /s/, /ʃ/, /x/) and how linguistic environments, such as syllable position and lexical stress, affect this variability. A gender-balanced sample of 24 Persian speakers was recorded in two sessions, 1-2 two weeks apart. Acoustic analysis targeted the first four spectral moments and duration. Results showed that center of gravity captured the greatest between-speaker variability, followed by standard deviation, skewness, duration, and kurtosis. Across segments, the alveolar /s/ exhibited the highest speaker-specificity, followed by /ʃ/, /f/, and /x/. Gender-based patterns emerged: for males, the center of gravity and skewness of /s/ were most discriminative, whereas for females, the center of gravity and standard deviation of /ʃ/ were most effective. The labiodental /f/ showed some speaker-specific characteristics only in the male group. Voiceless fricatives in syllable-initial positions demonstrated more speaker-specificity, while lexical stress did not impact between-speaker variability. Results also highlight cross-linguistic differences in the acoustic cues most effective for speaker differentiation and demonstrate that optimal features can vary across speaker populations. Adaptive algorithms are therefore crucial for improving forensic speaker comparison. © 2025 Acoustical Society of America.
