Consonant deletion

In discussing consonant deletion in CollSgE, it is useful to distinguish two factors which together serve to delimit the conditions under which the process occurs. These are (i) the kinds of consonants that get deleted – only stops get deleted, and (ii) the contexts in which such deletions take place – the stops are deleted only if they are in word-final position, and if they are preceded by a continuant.

We first begin with examples indicating that only stops get deleted. As the following examples illustrate, in words like limp or cent where the final stops /p, t/ are preceded by the nasal consonants /m, n/, the stops are deleted.

This deletion process does not occur with other kinds of consonants such as fricatives or affricates so that in words like nymph or laps, the word-final /f/ and /s/ are retained in the phonetic realization.

As for the contexts in which the deletion occurs, notice that once these stops are no longer in final position, as when they are suffixed with –ing, there is no deletion.

Thus, being in final position is crucial. Examples are given below.

This deletion process also takes place with words derived by the addition of the past tense suffix –ed, so that the final [t] or [d] is not pronounced.

Two points are worth noting. One, though the deletion of [t] in helped follows from the fact that the consonant is in final position and preceded by another consonant, the fact that [p] is retained (despite being preceded by [l]) suggests that consonant deletion does not take place if the preceding consonant is a continuant. Thus, in words like milk, silk, and bolt, the final stop is not deleted. Two, the realization of stabbed as [stεp] follows if we take into account the process of consonant devoicing. Thus, the addition of the past tense suffix gives us /stεb +d/. Consonant deletion leads to the removal of the final consonant, and devoicing results in [p], giving us [stεp] for stabbed.