Degree of Completeness. According to its degree, assimila­tion can be complete, incompleteandintermediate.

Assimilation is called complete in the case the two adjoining sounds become alike or merge into one. It always takes place when the two sounds differ only in one articulatory feature. We find cases of complete assimilation within words, e.g. cupboard ['kʌpbəd>'kʌbəd]; and at the word junction in fluent speech, e.g. less shy ['les'ʃaɪ > ' leʃʃaɪ].

Complete assimilation is also found in Russian, e.g. отде­лать, отдать; сжать, без сил, голос женщины, брат друга.
Assimilation is called incomplete when the likeness of the adjoining sounds is partial as the assimilated sound retains its major articulatory features. For example, the sonorants [w, 1, r] are partlially devoiced when preceded by the voiceless fortis [p, t, k, s, f, Ɵ] within words, e.g. sweet [swi:t], place [pleɪs], try [traɪ].

Assimilation is called intermediate in the case two adjoining sounds merge into one and the new sound is formed. For example, [n] + [p] = [m], [k] + [n] = [ŋ]

Grandparents

1. [d] is elided as it is between two consonants,

2. [n]>[p] = [m] – regressive, intermediate, non-obligatory,

3. [s] is voiceless because of the preceding voiceless [t].

Handkerchief

1. [n]>[d] = [n] - progressive, complete, obligatory,

2. [n] is elided,

3. [k]>[n] = [ŋ] – regressive, intermediate, non-obligatory.

Degree of Stability. Many assimilatory phenomena of older stages in the development of the language have become obligatory in modern English, they may, or may not be reflected in spelling. Such changes which have taken place over a period of time within words are called obligatory (historical), e.g. orchard (ort + yard) — ['ɔ:tjəd>'ɔ:ʧəd].
In modern language obligatory assimilations are special allophonic variants characteristics of the native’s speech. The use of the wrong allophone, though a non-phonemic mistake, amounts to mispronunciation and may be one of the causes of a foreign accent making understanding difficult. For example, a dental allophone of the alveolar [t] should be used when it is followed by (inter)dental [Ɵ] or [ð] as in eighth [eitƟ].

Besides there are a lot of widely-spread but non-obligatory cases of assimilation which can be traced mainly at word boundaries, e.g.

ten minutes ['ten 'minits>'tem'minits]
ten girls [ten g lz>teŋ g lz]

Non-obligatory assimilations are characteristic of fluent or careless speech and should be avoided by public speakers (lec­turers, teachers, etc).

You have to analyze words with assimilation according to all the types of assimilation, i.e. direction, degree of completeness, degree of stability. For example, ca ts – progressive, incomplete, obligatory (voiceless [t] influences the following [s] and it becomes voiceless)
brea dth – regressive, incomplete, obligatory ([Ɵ] influences the preceding alveolar allophone [d], which becomes dental)
sq uirell – reciprocal, incomplete, obligatory (voiceless [s] influences the following [w] which besomes partially devoiced and lip-rounded allophone of [w] influences [s] which becomes lip-rounded).

Quality of Adjacent Sounds. According to the quality of the adjacent sounds there can be four special cases of contact assim­ilation:

1. influence of a consonant on the adjacent consonant,

2. influence of a vowel on the adjacent vowel,

3. influence of a consonant on the adjacent vowel,

4. influence of a vowel on the adjacent consonant. We shall consider only the first case here.

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