A Contrastive Analysis of Persian and Korean Syllable Structure based on Typological Universals

Contrastive analysis is based on structural linguistics and tries to facilitate second language learning by focusing on the current phonological, morphological, and syntactic differences of languages. The goal of this study was to compare and contrast the syllables of Persian and Korean according to CA principles. To achieve the purpose, three typological universals, that is, elements of syllable, phonotactic rules, and potential syllables were investigated. The results on the first universal indicated that Korean has seven and Persian has six vowels which can be used in syllable structure of both languages without any constraint. Furthermore, by comparing 23 Persian and 22 Korean consonants according to International Phonetic Alphabet, some different constraints on the placement of some consonants of both languages in different syllable positions were identified. Results of syllable structure showed that Korean has CVC(C) and Persian has CV(CC) structure. Korean and Persian have binary branching syllabic structure, but their internal division is different. In Korean, onset and nucleus join together for making core and then this core can join to coda for making a syllable. In Persian, nucleus and coda join together producing rime and then rime join to onset. Additionally, there are some constraints on the syllable structure of Persian and Korean that make some other differences in the phonotactic rules of them. Finally, the findings pertaining to stress placement showed that the syllable-time is the common super segmental feature of both Korean and Persian.