According to wikipedia, the 'sh' sound in Japanese し is pronounced [ɕ] (in IPA) while the 'sh' sound in English "she" is pronounced [ʃ].
How do these differ? I've been pronouncing them exactly the same.
asked Sep 14, 2015 at 22:06
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1japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/24704/…– BlaviusCommented Sep 14, 2015 at 22:50
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1While you're at it, keep in mind that ち and じ type sounds differ from their English counterparts similarly -- and good on you for trying to learn the difference; otherwise fluent speakers using the English sound is pretty grating IMO.– BrandonCommented Sep 15, 2015 at 1:26
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1web.uvic.ca/ling/resources/ipa/charts/IPAlab/IPAlab.htm Samples on this page sound pretty much right. You can check it out yourself.– broccoli forestCommented Sep 15, 2015 at 4:55
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1 Answer
Oooh! Good question. I haven't thought about it in some time, but the Japanese sound is pronounced (at least in my experience in Tokyo) with the tip of the tongue closer to the top front teeth, as in the Mandarin xi sound. The way I pronounce English "she" as a native speaker is with air over the middle-front of my tongue, not the tip.
As it so happens, the Edokko accent pronounces hito like shito; this may offer you a way to approach the shi sound in standard Japanese (if you have hi covered). You can try aspirating hi more strongly until you get closer to a shi sound that passes muster.
