Can you explain Consonant Gradation and Assimilation, i ran across it during my online course and i have no idea what it is or has to do with. Since I didn't recognized English term, I ended up on Wikipedia. Now I know that means, but I really can't explain it better than WP ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consonant_gradation ) does. Basically it is just easier way to pronounce words when avoiding stops.