I've listened the pronunciation of the word "hangover" on Cambridge dictionary, both UK and US.
I am aware that the g is pronounced /ŋ/ here and I really didn't catch the phonetic sound [g] in there.
Nevertheless, I actually heard a few of people pronounce a [g] in "hangover" (like the [g] in "game").
So, should [g] in "hangover" be pronounced or silent?
Here is an example of a Canadian accent.
No, in most accents, there is no separate /g/ sound in hangover, just the same /ŋ/ as in "hang". It is like "singer" (/sɪŋɚ/) not "finger" (/fɪŋgɚ/)
Some accents in North-West England normally pronounce a /g/ in words like "hang", and for those speakers, "hangover" also has a /g/.
Colin Fine has already answered the question but I'm going to shed some light on its history.
Words that end with [ŋ] rather than [ŋɡ] in Modern English is the result of Cluster simplification that occurred in Modern English. Word-final <ng> used to be pronounced [ŋɡ] in Old and Middle English, but due to a sound change in Modern English, it became [ŋ]. With this sound change, [ŋ] became a phoneme in English.
Examples: Hang, sing, king etc., had [ŋɡ] word-finally but they came to be pronounced with [ŋ] in Modern English (though many dialects such as West Midlands and North West England kept the pronunciation with [ŋɡ]).
[ŋg] mostly remained word-medially (in the middle of monomorphemic words):
Examples: Finger, hunger, anger, linger etc., have [ŋg] word-medially.
In most cases, word-medial <ng> in some suffixed words did not become [ŋg]. I only know two of those suffixes; -ing and -er.
Examples: Singer, singing, hanger, ringing etc.
Comparatives and superlatives have [ŋg] word-medially. They're an exception to the normal rule of thumb.
Examples: younger, longer, stronger, longest etc.
Hangover is a compound word of hang and over, 'hang' has [ŋ] so its compounds don't have [ŋɡ]. It seems that the [g] doesn't get pronounced in compound words. (Note that the pronunciation with [ŋɡ] can still be heard in many dialects.
It's also explained briefly in Phonological variables and the sources of accent variables
Also see singer-finger split - Wikipedia
Yes, it is pronounced because otherwise it would be: hanover, like the city in Germany. The ng is pronounced. The difference is the a, not the ng.
There is also the word hangdog. If you don't pronounce the ng sound (/ŋ/), it would sound like handog.
This type of g as in hang (/ŋ/) is pronounced: low-hanging fruit OR The hangman.
Speakers do make the g sound as part of a "first unit", "hang" with a sort of pause, then comes over, dog or man or ing. The sound is ng.
However, it is impossible for me to describe this any better. Please listen at the site given below.
Here is a British guy doing the NG sound AKA [ŋ]
His site states:
/ŋ/ is a nasal sound made in the same position as /k/ and /g/, so the tongue is raised at the back, touching the soft palate and the noise is released through the nose.
thing, ng sound, the same as in hang
In the case of thing and hanging, there is basically no difference between British and American English for the NG.
Of course,it is not like the g in giant.
