This paper investigates cross-linguistic differences in gestural overlap in consonant clusters and discusses how different patterns of overlap may interact with language-specific place assimilation patterns. We examine Russian and Korean stop-stop sequences within and across words, produced at two speaking rates. Significant differences in degrees of overlap emerge between the two languages for both prosodic conditions. We discuss to what extent language-specific differences in overlap can be linked to the language-specific propensity for articulatory place assimilation.