Native pronunciation of the character "し”


I have recently become aware of the difference between the English and
Japanese "sh" sounds, which I understand are formalized as the palato-alveolar
fricative [ʃ] and the voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative [ɕ]. I am trying to
correct my pronunciation from [ʃ] to [ɕ], but I can't seem to nail the right
sound. I discussed it with some Japanese friends and they suggested that I
pronounce it without opening my mouth as much (口の空間を狭くして) so that's what I
have been attempting, but it seems like that has somehow resulted in し often
being misheard as ひ (資料as肥料、代償as代表) and the like. I did some research online
and it seemed to reinforce what I was doing; I read somewhere that the
Japanese し is pronounced with a "flatter tongue," that is, the flat part of
the tongue behind the tip contacts the alveolar ridge. But the flatter I make
my tongue, the less sharp the "sh" sound becomes, and altogether it sounds
even more ひ-like.

Any thoughts, tips, or materials out there that could help me out? If I move
my tongue very close to the front of my mouth as I pronounce it I can produce
a much sharper "sh" sound, but is this correct? I feel like I"m using the tip
of my tongue more than the blade in this case but maybe I'm wrong? Any advice
you could provide me with would be incredibly helpful!




Shape of the tongue aside, what's important is that you're placing the tip of
your tongue against your lower teeth. Try placing the tip of your tongue right
where your lower teeth go into your gums. Thinking about the shape of the
tongue in the mouth makes little difference; it's more about where the tip is
in your mouth (as with all consonants).

![Position of tongue in ⟨ɕ⟩](https://i.stack.imgur.com/1CtpH.png)

Here's a picture. Don't focus on what the tongue looks like in the mouth (it's
just a blob, as tongues are, and won't help). Look at where it meets the
teeth. Try make a fricative there yourself, and compare yourself with native
pronunciation until you think the two match.

If you don't get it within minutes of practicing, that's generally not a huge
issue, as hearing the lanuage more will make the sounds easier to mimic, but I
think consonants are easy enough to figure out just by thinking about it
(vowels are usually how people sound the most "foreign" in a language, because
there's a lot more variation).

