Phonological processes of Pasikhani dialect: A Case Study in the Framework of optimality theory

The present research seeks to analyze two phonological processes of Pasikhani dialect: compensatory lengthening and Vowel harmony. The theoretical framework of the study is on the basis of optimality approach, and the dialectal data gathering has been via recording five hours of speech together with the researcher's intuition as a native speaker. The data have been transcribed according to IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) and the research method is descriptive- analytic one. Accordingly, the phonological processes and compensatory deletion of /h/, /?/ in mono syllabic words in CVCC and disyllabic words in CVC.CV (C) context which lead to compensatory lengthening of vowel in first syllable; raising and vowel harmony (change of /e/ as a low vowel to [i] as a high vowel; (change of /e/ as a front vowel to [u] as a back vowel) have been exemplified within the tables and analyzed in tableaus by the use of the constraint rankings in OT.
The results depict deletion and insertion as the highest processed and metathesis as the lowest.