Edit
The comments here are full of disbelievers!
- "I've never heard handbag pronounced that way. Which country are you from?"
Oh ye of little faith! So – I've attached a couple of examples here from that video site place. Watch the first from 23 seconds in. There's about five or six 'hambags' in the next half a minute: Hambag. Here's a second one, an American English speaker this time. He also says it about 23 seconds in too: A bag for sweet hams. Lastly, here's an altogether different pronunciation which you may find rather interesting. It's by far the best: A handbag?
The question
It's all in the title really. The other day I was hanging out with some teachers. They were all talking about /hæmbægz / i.e. 'hambags'. Ever since then I've been hearing people do this all the time. What's with the bags for ham?
What are the restrictions there on dropping one of the letters. I mean I can't say 'bangroll' /bæŋrəʊl*/ for bankroll. And I can't drop the /d/ in 'bedroom' and say /berʊm*/. Why can I drop a /d/ in 'handbag' when I can't drop a /k/ in 'bankroll'?
Secondly, what's happening to the /n/ there? Is it changing? If so why? After all we can't change the /m/ for example in 'hemlock' to 'henlock', although that would be much easier to say.
What's with the ham?
Best Answer
This is a simple case of cluster reduction of /db/ → /b/, combined with assimilation: /n/ is labialised to /m/ before a bilabial consonant /b/ or /p/, and velarised to /ŋ/ before a velar consonant /g/ or /k/.
I expect the cluster is reduced because it’s relatively uncommon. This is often where you encounter reduction and epenthesis. Compare:
I’m a native speaker of American English, from New England, and a good portion of the time in running speech, I pronounce the cluster /db/ as /bː/ or /b/:
And the cluster /ndb/ as /mb/:
English has a long history of cluster reductions involving nasals and stops:
So I expect this is little different.