The analysis of metathesis in Taleshi Digehsarɑee dialect within Optimality Theory

This paper studies the metathesis in Taleshi Digehsarɑee dialect within Optimality Theory. Metathesis is a phonological process in which the order of the segments is reversed which has been the subject of many studies. This process can be regular or sporadic, according to the range of application. Metathesis is usually not considered a systematic process and is considered as an irregular process among various phonological processes. But in some languages it is a regular and systematic process. It seems that the metathesis can be regular if it serves a specific structural purpose. This structural goal may be of a general and phonological nature. Its analysis in Persian language shows that this process in Middle Persian, after removing the final vowels of words in most cases, acts regularly and by changing the sequence of phonemes, makes them subject to the Sonority Sequence Principle (SSP) or sonority distribution, which observes a kind of phonological well-formedness. But the data analyzed in this article, which is related to the Taleshi digehsarɑee dialect, cannot be discussed in its order. Because while in some cases the output of the metathesis corresponded to the Sonority Sequence Principle (SSP) and attraction principle, in other cases the sequence of phonemes that were subject to the Sonority Sequence Principle (SSP) and attraction principle was reversed.