Assimilation in English

from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assimilation_(linguistics)

Assimilation is a common phonological process by which the sound

of the ending of one word blends into the sound of the beginning of
the following word. This occurs when the parts of the mouth and
vocal cords start to form the beginning sounds of the next word
before the last sound has been completed. An example of this would
be 'hot potato'. The (t) in 'hot' is dropped as the lips prepare for the
(p) sound for 'potato' (Bloomer et, 2005).

Assimilation is the alteration of a speech sound to make it more

similar to its neighbours.

Examples:

ten men ten men tem men

fine grade fai
red paint red peint reb peint
bad guys b
eight boys eit b
this shape
these shoes
this unit
unless you
as you see
Bad boy /bæd bɔɪ > /bæb bɔɪ/
Bad girl /bæd gɜ:l/ > /bæg gɜ:l/
Ten pens /ten penz/ > tem penz/
Ten keys /ten ki:z/ > /teŋ ki:z/
Is she / ɪz ʃi/ > /ɪʒ ʃi
Dress shop /dres ʃɒp/ > /dreʃ ʃɒp/
Don`t you /dəʊnt ju/ > / dəʊntʃu/
Have to /hæv tu/ > /hæf tu/
Of course /əv kɔ:s/ > /əf kɔ:s/

When we find a phoneme realized differently as a result of being

near some other phoneme belonging to a neighbouring word we call
this an instance of assimilation. (Roach. P. 1998. English Phonetics
and Phonology. Cambridge University Press).
Assimilation according M. Luisa Lecumberri: Assimilation is the
process by which two (or more) sounds become more similar to each
other. This similarity is achieved by one of the sounds taking
characteristics from the other one.