Rhyme Processing in Persian: Auditory Priming in First and Second Language

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Teaching Persian to non-Persian Speakers, Faculty of Literature, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran

2 Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Literature, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran

3 Department of Statistics, Faculty of Mathematics, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of rhyme-based phonological priming on auditory word recognition in native Persian speakers and second-language learners of Persian. Phonological priming may facilitate or inhibit lexical processing through phonological overlap between a prime and a target word, and this effect may differ depending on listeners’ language background. To examine this issue, an auditory priming task was designed with three experimental conditions: rhyme, phoneme transposition, and control. The participants were 30 individuals, including 15 native Persian speakers and 15 Arabic-speaking learners of Persian. In each group, 7 participants were male and 8 were female; overall, 53.3% were women and 46.7% were men. The mean age of the Iranian group was 29.33 years ( ), and the mean age of the Arabic group was 33 years ( ). The stimuli were recorded by a native Persian speaker, normalized, and presented using PsychoPy software. Prime and target stimuli were delivered auditorily with an interstimulus interval of 2000 milliseconds. The results showed that experimental condition had a significant effect on reaction time in both groups. For native Persian speakers, the rhyme condition significantly reduced reaction time compared with both the control and transposition conditions, while no significant difference was found between the control and transposition conditions. In Persian learners, the rhyme condition also produced the fastest responses and differed significantly from the control condition, although its difference from the transposition condition was only marginally significant. Overall, the findings indicate that rhyme facilitates auditory word recognition.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

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Journal of Linguistics & Iranian Languages
Volume 10, Issue 4
February 2026
Pages 49-76

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  • Receive Date: 22 February 2026
  • Revise Date: 27 May 2026
  • Accept Date: 21 May 2026

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