Russian Loanword Adaptation in Persian; Optimal Approach

Abstract

In this paper we analyzed some of the phonological rules of Russian loanword adaptation in Persian, on the view of Optimal Theory (OT) (Prince and Smolensky, 1993, 2003). It is the first study of phonological process on Russian loanwords adaptation in Persian. By gathering about 50 current Russian loanwords, we selected some of them to analyze. We found out that vowel insertion, vowel prothesis, no palatalized consonants are the phonological processes occur on Russian loanwords in Persian.