2 Researches in LinguisticsDescription and Analysis of Deletion in Kalhori KurdishE. BadakhshanïªUniversity of KurdistanM. ZamaniïªïªUniversity of KurdistanAbstractThe present article deals with the description and analysis of structural deletion in KalhoriKurdish. Optimality theory with a synchronic approach is adopted as the theoreticalframework of this research article. The analysis of deletion process in this research paperconsists of two sections. The first section deals with a mechanism by which deletion takesplace and the second part is based on the analysis of the criteria of vowel selection for theapplication of deletion process. It is shown that Kurdish language should be included amonglanguages which use both v1 and v2 deletion processes when applying hiatus, where a prefixand a lexical root coincide. It is also shown that deletion process, where two vowels meet, isnot an optimal choice and that other processes such as glide formation can be more suitablehere. It will also be argued that the deletion occurs only when a glide formation from v1 is notpossible due to [Gh(GLIDEHOOD)] conditions.Key Words: Deletion, Glide formation, Optimality theory, hiatusïª badakhshane@gmail.comïªïª mohammadz22@ymail.com