A Critical Response to “Persian Vowel Harmony Without Exceptionality: A Reply to Jam”

Critiquing research papers is an essential component of scholarly advancement, provided that it is undertaken meticulously, considering the relevant theoretical framework and adhering to professional and ethical decorum to avoid disrespecting researchers’ academic credibility. This rejoinder constitutes a response to the critique by Pirhayati (۲۰۲۵) concerning the present author’s paper entitled “Vowel Harmony in Persian,” published in Lingua in ۲۰۲۰. The issues that the critic discusses include comments on vowel harmony in the Persian imperative structures, particularly exceptionality, constraint rankings, prenasal raising, and the phonological representation of English loanwords in Persian, as well as some additional criticisms. The purpose of this rejoinder is to address all criticisms raised in that critique, providing detailed and scholarly responses to each point—with explicit reference to the topics discussed by the critic—in order to clarify the analyses presented in Jam (۲۰۲۰) and to dispel potential ambiguities

کلیدواژه ها:

vowel harmony ، Exceptionality ، Persian phonology ، Optimality Theory ، Constraint ranking