Abstract
The phonological process whereby two different segments become more similar or identical (cf. Lat. assimilare ‘to liken, be similar’).
Assimilation is the most common phonological process cross-linguistically, examples from English including ‘gimme’ for ‘give me’ or ‘impossible’ from the prefix ‘in-’ before [p]. The opposite process is dissimilation. Despite its prevalence, its causes and effects are not always easy to identify (Miller 2010:178-181). Assimilation of consonants may be usefully categorized accordin…