What is the deletion rule? Explain your answer with examples.
(1) Deletion rule is one of the phonological rules It tells us when sound is to be deleted although it is orthographically represented.
(2) In the pronunciation of such words as sign, design, and paradigm, there is no [g] sound although it is represented in spelling by the letter g. But in their corresponding forms signature, designation, and paradigmatic, the [g] represented by the letter g is pronounced. The rule can be stated as: Delete a [g] when it occurs before a final nasal consonant. Given the rule, the phonemic representation of the stems in sign-signature, resign-resignation, phlegm-phlegmatic paradigm-paradigmatic will include the phoneme /g/, which will be deleted according to the regular rule if no suffix is added. (2P39)
