evaluation of word formation processes in prisoner's linguistic variety

One of the social groups who are reluctant to disclose their secrets of conversations with others are prisoners, whose unwillingness leads to the production of a type of prison language. The Researchers have collected new terms used by prisoners for various purposes and they have studied them in terms of phonemic representation. The research is fieldwork and data is gathered in way of having direct contact with participants. The data of the research were based on conversations of 50 male members of the group who have been in prison for more than 10 years in prison in Tehran province. Finally, a total of around 600 words and special terms of the prison were collected. After analyzing the data, the researchers concluded that the environment and conditions affecting the prisoners influence on prisoner's speeches. Phonological changes occur in their speeches. The word making processes are: coinage, repetition, shortening, acronym, curtailing, compounding and borrowing. Among the phonological processes the most frequent one is related to coinage.