/k/ lenition in Persian history: a Laboratory Phonology view

Abstract

This article accounts for the acoustic grounds of the diachronic lenition of Old Persian /k/ to [ʧ] and [z] in certain verbal (present tense) and nonverbal forms and to [x] in the past tense of the same verbs, in /V‌‌__ [a, e]/ and /V__[t]/ contexts respectively. In order to replicate the phonetic context of these diachronic changes within the framework of laboratory phonology, present day Persian forms containing the same phonetic contexts were uttered twice by two male speakers of Persian and recorded and analyzed using the Praat software (version 5363). The results of the acoustic analysis of the recorded samples and Independent-Samples t-test indicated that [k] shows a high degree of fronting within the context of the stressed vowels [á, é]. At the same time, aspiration in intervocalic position motivates the spirantization/affrication of this consonant. Intervocalic fronted [c] and [ʧ] are acoustically similar to each other as well as to [ʃ] and [s]. The consonants [c] and [x] have certain common acoustic characteristics when they appear before [t]. Therefore, [c] is prone to be weakened and interpreted as a fricative/affricate in such contexts.

Keywords

• diachronic lenition
• velar stop
• laboratory phonology
• historical phonology
• persian language