Why is it absorB but absorPtion? Is this a rule that applies to other words (I cant think of any off the top of my head, but I'm notoriously dreadful at pulling words out of my brain when I need them).
http://snowball.tartarus.org/texts/introduction.html section 6 lists some more irregularities like conceive/conception. "Etymologically, the explanation of the first is that the Latin root, sorbere, is an irregular verb..." So I'm guessing there isn't a specific rule for that one.
There isn't a specific rule for English, but Latin passive participles do have some method to their madness. Specifically, what's going on here is that "sorbere" would theoretically have the participle "sorbtus" but the b assimilates its voicing to the unvoiced p, giving "sorptus" and therefore English "absorption". I can come up with more examples when I'm not at work.
Incidentally, there aren't any other words ending in "b" to which "-tion" can be added, whether the letter changes or not. But yes, it's generally a matter of voicing assimilation, and as Cnoocy suggests, it's something that happens in this case due to a Latin irregularity.
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