The definition of assimilation is the sound change in which some phonemes (typically consonants or vowels) change to be more similar to other proximate sounds. It is a common type of phonological process through languages.
It can occur within a word or between words. It takes place in normal speech, and it becomes more common in more rapid speech.
Assimilation occurs in two different types: (complete assimilation) in which the sound is affected by assimilation that becomes accurately the same as the sound causing assimilation, while the (partial assimilation) the sound becomes the same in one or more features, but still different in other features.
There are different aspects of assimilation, the most common one is the anticipatory assimilation. It applies to the whole lexicon or part of it. For example, in English, the handbag word in rapid speech is pronounced [hæmbæɡ]). This is because the [m] and [b] sounds are both bilabial consonants and their sites of articulation are similar; whereas the sequence [d]-[b] has different places but a similar manner of articulation (voiced stop) and is sometimes omitted, causing the canonical [n] phoneme to sometimes assimilate to [m] before the [b].
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