Bahareh Soohani - Metadata Services and Acquisition, Leiden University Libraries, the Netherlands
Abbas Ali Ahangar - English Language Department, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Sistan and Baluchestan University, Zahedan, Iran
Marc Van Oostendorp - Department of Modern Languages and Cultures, Radboud University, the Netherlands

The present article dedicates to studying the syllable-internal structure in three Iranian Balochi dialects (IBDs) namely Mirjaveh Sarhaddi, Sarawani and Lashari dialects. The data analysis will be based on the onset-rhyme theory (e.g., Kurylowicz, ۱۹۴۸; Fudge, ۱۹۶۹; Vergnaud & Halle, ۱۹۷۹; Selkirk, ۱۹۸۲). Moreover, the syllable weight in IBDs will be discussed in the framework of mora theory (Hayes, ۱۹۸۵, ۱۹۸۹). The data have been collected during the research fieldwork in Sistan and Baluchestan province, Iran. The research findings demonstrate that the Balochi language is an example of a nucleus-weight language in which heavy syllables depend on the number of elements in the nucleus. Thus, CV and CVC are light syllables and CVV(C) syllable is counted as heavy syllable. Besides, the context-dependent weight of CVC syllables occurs in IBDs stress pattern system. Studying the syllable contact (word-medial consonant clusters) in IBDs shows that Balochi is among languages that admit all types of heterosyllablic clusters.

syllable structure, syllable weight, sonority scale, internal coda, syllable contact, Iranian Balochi Dialects