Investigating the Phoneme Elision Process in Dari Persian Dialect of Rustaq, Afghanistan

The purpose of this study is to investigate the phoneme elision process in the Dari Persian dialect of the Rustaq district. Rustaq Persian dialect is one of the Dari Persian dialects that has been prevalent in this country since the distant past years. Today, investigating the phoneme elision process in various dialects has been the focus of many researchers; but no research can investigate the elision process in Rustaq Persian dialect yet. This problem encouraged the writer to investigate the phoneme elision process in the Rustaq Persian dialect by using the synchronic approach. This research has been done by descriptive-analytical method and the method of collecting data has been done by field research. In this research, we have interviewed 54 residents of Rustaq district. We analyzed the data after transcribing and categorizing. The findings of this research show that the people of Rustaq continuously omit some phonemes in their informal speech. Among the consonants in the elision process, the contribution of glottal-fricative consonant /h/ and glottal-plosive consonant /ʔ/ are more than other consonants. Among the vowels, short vowels are often exposed to the elision process. Elision of consonants mostly occurs in the boundary of two morphemes and at the end of the word, and elision of vowels mostly occurs in the middle of the word. The number of syllables in the word is reduced in the elision of vowels.


Introduction
Rustaq is the most populated district of Takhar province.The center of this district is about 100 km from Taloqan city, the capital of Takhar province.This city is located in a lowwater valley in the north of sawed-off mountains.This city was considered one of the most important trade centers and was located on the main Indo-Bukhara Road at the end of the 19th century.Even in the first 20 years of the 20th century, it had an opportunity for commercial adjacency with Peshawar through Faizabad Chatral (Saidian, 2004, vol. 4, p. 4960).
The residents of Rustaq are mostly Tajiks and Uzbeks.Other ethnic groups live scattered in this land, and their number is unremarkable.The people of Rustaq speak Dari Persian and Uzbek languages, but the use of the Persian language is more common.In Rustaq, it is difficult to find people who are not familiar with the Dari Persian language or who do not benefit from Persian in official, administrative, and educational activities.Rustaq Persian dialect is one of the pure Dari Persian dialects, which has been popular in this land since the distant past years.This dialect has preserved many characteristics of the Dari Persian dialect of the Takharestan region.The Rustaq people have played their part in maintaining the cultural values and linguistic authenticity of the civilization of their ancestors; so that many linguistic forms of the past periods of the Dari Persian language are still preserved in the Rustaq dialect.
One of the ways that helps the researchers to understand some linguistic features is to deal with phonological processes.In contemporary times, phonological processes in various dialects have attracted the attention of several linguists.Phoneme elision is one of these processes that can be investigated in various dialects.
The phoneme elision process in the Rustaq Persian dialect is one of the most common phonological processes.Rustaq people constantly miss some consonants and vowels in their informal speech, but research that can investigate the phoneme elision process scientifically and linguistically has not been seen yet.Therefore, examining the phoneme elision process in the Rustaq Persian dialect shows the necessity of doing it.
This research provides a lot of information about phoneme elision in the Rustaq Persian dialect for the readers.On the one hand, the present research can help the researchers in investigating the phoneme elision process in other dialects and comparing it with the Rustaq Persian dialect, and on the other hand, it can play its role in expanding the field of Dari Persian dialectology studies.
The main goal of this study is to investigate the phoneme elision process in Rustaq Persian dialect.In this research, the researcher intends to answer the question, which types of phonemes are facing to be deleted in Rustaq Persian dialect?In general, this research seeks to show the elision of consonants, vowels, and semi-vowels in the Rustaq Persian dialect by using the synchronic approach.

Literature Review
Valuable research has been done about the phoneme elision process in the Dari Persian language.Many researchers have addressed this issue in discussions of grammar, phonetics, and phonology, and many others have independently investigated the process of voice elision in Dari Persian.
Mahootian wrote a book titled "Persian language grammar from a typology perspective" (2011).This book contains three sections: grammar, syntax, and phonology.The writer has described the colloquial language style of educated people in Tehran in the context of studying synchronics.In the phonology section of this book, he examined the process of phonemes elision in the Persian language and commented as follows: "The number of elision processes in the Persian language is productive, that most of them are related for the simplification of consonant clusters.Consonants /h/ and /ʔ/ are omitted more than other consonants".
In the book "Phonology: Phonetics", Haq-shonas (2013) claimed that he made the principles and basics of phonetics available to the Persian reader for the first time.In the eighth chapter of this book, while explaining the phonetic processes, he considered it necessary to distinguish between two types of elision processes in the language: one is historical elision, based on a phonetic unit that is deleted from a certain phonetic chain by following historical rules, and another is an elision of the structure which is depended to the rules of the sound system of the language that governs the combination of sounds in the speech chain.Badakhshan and Zamani (2013) analyzed and described the elision process in an article in the Kurdish language: Kalahri dialect.In this article, the writers have placed the Kurdish language among those languages that can be seen in the elision process of V1 and V2 when the vowels converge at the point of contact of the suffix and the lexical root.
Kurd Zafaranlou Kambozia (2014) has endeavored to write a book under the title "Phonology: the foundation approaches principles".Moreover, he analyzed and examined the new and popular theories in the field of phonology in this book, he explained and applied these theories in the Persian language and Iranian dialects.In addition, the writer has added the exercise book, which contains various examples of dialects and accents in Iran, to complete the phonological information and print it in one volume.The eighth chapter of this work has been dedicated to the processes of shortening, elision, and insertion.In the same chapter, the elision process has been explained under the titles of vowel elision, consonant elision, and elision in Iranian dialects.The writer believes that in the Persian language, polysyllabic words with long lengths become shorter through the elision process of a vowel, which is common in continuous speech.Consonants are continuously deleted like vowels in speech, too.
Also, Zafaranlou Kambozia et al. (2019) examined different types of elision in the framework of the Optimality theory in an article under the title of "Elision process in the Persian language", both from the point of view of the position and context that is deleted.The results of this research show that consonants are deleted more than vowels.Among the phonemes of the Persian language, plosive consonants and short vowels are more likely to be deleted.
The conducted research shows that the phoneme elision process in the language is a common thing, and all dialects face the phoneme elision process.Therefore, the present study investigates the phoneme elision process in the Rustaq Persian dialect.

Phoneme Elision Process
Elision is a process in which phonemes are removed from specific phonetic textures.This process occurs in many languages of the world (O'Gardy et al., 2018: 72).The process of elision occurs mostly in speech and causes variation in the syllable structure and provides an acceptable syllabic or lexical pattern in the phonology of a language (Kord-e zafaranlu kamboziya and et al., 2019: 2).The process of elision in a language is divided into two types: one is historical elision, based on a phonetic unit which is deleted from a certain phonetic chain by following historical rules, and another is elision of the structure which is depended to the rules of the sound system of the language that governs the combination of sounds in the speech chain (Haq-shonas, 2013: 157).This process happens in everyone's speech and it is not appropriate to consider it as a disordered expression and pronounced out of laziness.If we always deny the regular pattern of elision in a language, the result will be a speech that looks too artificial (Yule, 2012: 74).Elision is against insertion, and a phonetic unit may be deleted from the beginning, middle, or end of the word (Kord-e zafaranlu kamboziya, 2014: 367).Elision is normally a variable rule.In formal speech, speakers try to pronounce all the phonemes in words; but in informal style, the phoneme elision process is common and can probably be considered as a rule (Mahootian, 2011: 319).The elision process is allowed and applicable as long as the meaning of the word and vocabulary is not lost and does not change the meaning of the word (Yamin, 2015: 127).

Research Method
This research has been done by descriptive-analytical method and the method of collecting data is field method.In this research, 54 natives of Rustaq were interviewed.People in different categories participated in the interview such as urban and rural people, men and women, educated and uneducated people from various occupations, with different age ranges of 24 to 85.In this research, 184 examples of elision cases have been collected.The process of interviewing with educated and illiterate people was different; illiterate people were forced to speak without being aware of the researcher's goals, and data was extracted from the conversation with them; but before starting the interview with the educated people, a number of them were graduated students of Dari Persian language and literature faculty, the research's goal was explained to them clearly.After collecting the data, it was transcribed and categorized, then, it was analyzed with a synchronic approach.

Data analysis
In this section, we will examine the process of elision in phonetic units such as consonants, vowels, consonant-vowel, and vowel-consonant elision sequences by using the synchronic approach in Rustaq Persian dialect.

Elision of Vowel
Some Persian words are produced in two types of syllabic construction.In these words, two short syllables (CVC) at the beginning of the word are usually changed to one syllable (CVC) by elision of the second vowel.Persian speakers tend to use middle syllables.In the Persian language, the presence of heavy syllables (cvcc) or the frequency of short syllables (cv) has created a kind of irregularity in the words.Converting the syllable (cvcv) to the syllable (cvc) through the elision process of the vowel tells the prevalence of these syllables in the Persian language (Kord-e zafaranlu kamboziya, 2014: 268).In the Rustaq Persian language dialect, there are examples that two short syllables at the beginning of the word have become one syllable by elision of the second vowel.In the Rustaq Persian dialect, it is sometimes seen that a long syllable and a short syllable at the beginning of the word become one syllable.This happens when the inflectional prefix /mê/ is added to the past tense and the present tense.In this case, the short vowel is deleted from the first syllable of the verb.In the Dari Persian language, the phoneme elision process occurs whenever a closed word begins with a vowel which is joined to a noun or a preposition ending with a vowel, or when an agreement ending termination ends with a stem ending with a vowel.In this case, the vowel of the beginning clitic and the agreement ending termination is deleted (Mahootian, 2011: 327).In Rustaq Persian dialect, we did not find any evidence that a vowel is omitted between the preposition and clitic, or the beginning vowel of an agreement ending termination is lost from pronunciation after joining with the stem; except there are some cases where the vowel of clitic has been omitted after joining to the end of the noun.In the Rustaq Persian dialect, elision of the long vowel from the second syllable of the word is less common, and we have come across an example of it, in this research.Sometimes, in the Persian dialect of Rustaq, a short vowel falls from the last syllable of the word.The samples show that in 10 cases the short vowel /a/, in 9 cases the short vowel /o/ and in one case the long vowel /i/ have been deleted.Usually, the vowels are deleted from the first syllable of the verb stem after joining with the emphasis prefix /be-/, the negative prefix /na-/ and the prefix /mê-/.Also, the vowel of the clitics lost its pronunciation after it was joined with clitics.

Elision of semi-vowels
Semi-vowels are the phonemes that sometimes form the root of a syllable in the phonetic system of the language and are used as vowels and sometimes do not form the root of a syllable and do the role of a consonant (Dour-andish, 2018: 103).Semi-vowels appear at the beginning and middle of syllables, and morphemes and words appear alone and as consonants; except at the end of syllables and morphemes, they are part of compound vowels.In the Dari Persian language, there are two semi-vowels, which are /w/ and /y/ (Yamin, 2015: 50).In the Rustaq Persian dialect, these two semi-vowels can be recognized and are lost in normal speech.

Elision of the semi-vowel /y/
This semi-vowel is mostly deleted from the end of the word, less than the beginning of the word and rarely from the middle of the word less than between two morphemes.

Elision of semi-vowel /w/
In the Persian dialect of Rustaq, found only two cases where the semi-vowel /w/ lost its pronunciation.In the elision process of the phoneme in the Rustaq Persian dialect, the semi-vowel /y/ is mostly deleted rather than semi-vowel /w/.The semi-vowel /y/ is mostly removed from the beginning and end of the words and less from the middle of words; but the elision of the semivowel /w/ is observed at the end of words.In this research, we were faced with 9 cases with the elision of the semi-vowel /y/ and in 2 with the elision of the semi-vowel /w/.

Elision of the consonant
Consonants are always faced with the elision process in spoken language, like vowels.The elision process happens more in some consonants (Kord-e zafaranlu kamboziya, 2014: 270) and less in others.In the Rustaq Persian dialect, there are many examples indicating the elision of some consonants from the beginning, middle, and end of the words.

Elision of glottal fricative consonant /h/
The consonant /h/ is deleted more than other consonants in the Rustaq dialect.This consonant is deleted from monosyllabic and polysyllabic words.The consonant /h/ is sometimes deleted from the beginning, middle, and end of a simple word, and sometimes it falls out of pronunciation in the boundary of two morphemes in derived and compound words.

Elision of the plosive-glottal consonant /ʔ/
Glottal consonant /ʔ/is deleted from the beginning, middle, and end of the word in Rustaq Persian dialect.The elision of this consonant has a high frequency in the Rustaq Persian dialect.Glottal consonant /ʔ/ is deleted at the beginning of a word before a vowel, in the middle of a word between two vowels, and at the end of a word sometimes from consonant clusters and sometimes after long vowels.

Elision of the plosive consonant /t/
In the Dari Persian language, consonant clusters ending with a dental plosive /t/ are deleted in the boundary of two morphemes.If the second component of the cluster is /st/, /ŝt/, and there is no vowel after it, the consonant /t/ is not pronounced (Mahootian, 2011: 326).Such cases can be seen a lot in the Persian dialect of Rustaq.Also, the consonant /d/ is sometimes deleted from the end of the word when it comes after the vowel/a/ in this dialect.This type of elision often occurs in the suffix of the third person singular of the present verb (-ad).In Rustaq Persian dialect, there are some cases that the consonant /d/ is deleted after the consonants /n/, /z/ and /d/ in the boundary of two morphemes.

Elision of the trill consonant /r/
In the Persian dialect of Rustaq, the consonant /r/ is sometimes deleted from the middle and end of the word.The frequency of elision of the consonant /r/ at the end of the word is more usual.

Elision of the nasal consonant /n/
In the Persian dialect of Rustaq, the consonant /n/ is deleted after the vowel at the end of the words.

Elision of the plosive consonant /j/
In the Rustaq dialect, this consonant is deleted from the /nj/ cluster in the boundary of two morphemes if it is placed before the fricative consonants /ŝ/ and /s/.

Elision of the fricative consonant /z/
In Rustaq dialect, only three cases were found that the consonant /z/ was deleted after the long vowels.The evidences show that in 43 cases the consonant /h/, in 27 cases the consonant /ʔ/, in 26 cases the consonant /d/, in 21 cases the consonant /t/, in 8 cases the consonant /r/, in 7 cases the consonant /n/, in 4 cases the consonant /j/, in 3 cases the consonant /z/, in 3 cases the consonant /k/, in 2 cases the consonant /b/ and in one case the consonant /g/ have been deleted.

Elision of the consonant and vowel sequences
In the Rustaq Persian dialect, we sometimes face with the elision of vowel-consonant or consonant-vowel sequences, and such elision causes the reduction of some syllables in the word.In this dialect, the elision of consonant-vowel sequence is more than the elision of vowel-consonant sequence.In the Rustaq Persian dialect, consonant-vowel sequence elision is more than vowelconsonant sequence elision.It is known from the samples that in 8 cases we have witnessed the consonant-vowel sequence and in 3 cases we have witnessed the elision of vowelconsonant sequence.The results of this study show that among 184 data, we are faced in 19 cases with vowel elision, in 11 cases with semi-vowel elision, in 154 cases with consonant elision, in 8 cases with consonant-vowel sequence elision, and in 3 cases with vowel-consonant sequence elision.

Conclusion
Elision is a phonological process that leads to the loss of some phonemes in the phonetic chain.This process is very common in the Persian dialect of Rustaq.In informal style, Rustaq speakers drop some consonants, vowels and semi-vowels in their pronunciation.In this dialect, the consonants are deleted more rather than vowels and semi-vowels.The process of elision occurs more in some consonants and less in others.In this dialect, glottalfricative consonants /h/ and glottal-plosive /ʔ/ are omitted more than other consonants; but case of elision in plosive /j/, fricative /z/, bilabial /b/, and plosive /k/ and /g/ are comparatively less.In the Rastaq dialect, vowels have the most cases of elision after consonants omitting two short syllables and sometimes a long syllable with a short syllable; vowels causes at the beginning of the word to become one syllable.Commonly, vowels are omitted from the first syllable of the root after the attachment prefix /b/, the negation prefix /na-/ and the continuous prefix /mê/ are joined.The short vowels /o/ and /a/ are more exposed to the elision process among the vowels.In the Persian dialect of Rustaq city, semi-vowels are sometimes lost.The cases of elision of semi-vowel /y/ are more rather than semi-vowel /w/.The semi-vowel /y/ elision occurs more from the beginning and end of words, and less from between words.In the Rastaq dialect, the deletion of the semivowel /w/ occurs in very few cases, also at the end of the word, and there is no evidence of its deletion at the beginning or middle of the word.In Rastaq Persian dialect, sometimes we face the deletion of vowel-consonant or consonantvowel sequences.In this dialect, the deletion of the consonant-vowel sequence is more than the deletion of the vowel-consonant sequence.
This research has investigated the phoneme elision process in the Rustaq Persian dialect.During this research, it is found that the process of omitting phonemes in the Persian dialect of Rustaq happens more.Therefore, more research may be done on the process of omitting consonants, vowels and semi-vowels in the Persian dialect of Rustaq separately.
Elision of vowels by mentioning its type

Table 1 .
Elision of short vowel from the second syllable of the beginning of the word

Table 2 .
Elision of short vowels from the first syllable of verb-root

Table 3 .
Elision of vowel of cliticafter attachment to theclitic with vowel

Table 4 .
Elision of the long vowel from the second syllable of the word

Table 5 .
Elision of the short vowel from the last syllable of the word

Table 6 .
Elision of semi-vowel (y) from the end of the word

Table 7 .
Elision of semi-vowel (y) from the first part of the word

Table 10 .
Elision of the glottal consonant /h/ from the beginning of the word

Table 11 .
Elision of the glottal consonant /h/ among the simple words

Table 12 .
Elision of the glottal consonant /h/ from the end of the simple words

Table 13 .
Elision of the glottal consonant /h/ in boundary of two morphemes

Table 14 .
Elision of the glottal consonant /ʔ/ from the beginning of the word

Table 15 .
Elision of the glottal consonant /ʔ/ from the middle of the word

Table 16 .
Elision of the glottal consonant /ʔ/ from the end of the

Table 17 .
Elision of the consonant /t/

Table 20 .
Elision of the consonant /d/ from the suffix of third plural person

Table 21 .
Elision of the consonant /d/ from the suffix of third singular person -from present verb

Table 22 .
Elision of the consonant /d/

Table 23 .
Elision of the consonant /r/ in middle of the word

Table 24 .
Elision of the consonant /r/ from the end of the word and morpheme

Table 25 .
Elision of the consonant /r/ at the end of word

Table 26 .
Elision of the consonants /k/ and /g/

Table 27 .
Elision of the consonant /j/ This consonant sometimes deleted from the consonant cluster /mb/ and it is sometimes deleted after the stretched phoneme /u/.

Table 29 .
Elision of the consonant /j/