I was reading a book on fast speech english phonology, wherein the following is listed.
t/d + sh = ch what + shud = whachud, did +she = dichi
l + sh = lch will +she = wilchi
n + sh = nch when +should = whenchud
Do any native speakers observe these assimilation of alveolars like d, t, n, l into affricates like ch?
I think it's more common to insert a t between n/l and s but a t between n/l and sh (t+sh=ch) sounds perfectly normal to me, too. However, I've heard people claim they don't do either of these assimilation, that "prints" and "prince" don't rhyme for them. But those people seem to be a minority.
Interestingly, this kind of assimiliation is also common in German. People who use a pure palatal affricative [C] for the consonant at the end of the word "ich" pronounce the word "Milch" [mIlC]. Those who use an alveolo-palatal consonant [s\] (which is not uncommon) pronounce it [mIlts\] - with an inserted t.
This is the only example where this assimilation really stands out. I'm hardly able to hear a difference between [mEnS] and [mEntS] ("Mensch") and I assume the same goes for most native English speakers.
what's + your = whacher
t + (s+y) = t +sh = ch