How to write the English "sh" ⟨ʃ⟩ in Japanese?

Question

I've learned that if you're translating a name into Japanese you have to translate it by the sound. I want to translate the name "Tymoteusz". I think the name itself is Greek but the writing is Polish, however it's not Japanese so I need katakana. I started translating.

The first sound is a "t" and then "y" (you read the "y" in polish ⟨ɘ⟩). There is no sound in Japanese that sounds like this so I used チ.

Then the next sounds are pretty easy. First just a モ. Then テ. And then ウ.

So I got チモテウ. Now I need the last sound. You read "sz" like a English "sh" (⟨ʃ⟩). I've heard Japanese People using this soind, but I have no Idea how to write it. Can someone help me?

How to write ⟨ʃ⟩ in Japanese? And is my translation correct (all sounds without IPA sound like the Japanese ones)?

Answer 1

In general, the lone-standing [ʃ] tends to be represented, as it is the case with most of the consonants, with the U vowel: thus, I'd expect it to be rendered as シュ.

Luckily, we can check that: by putting "Tymoteusz" into the Japanese Wikipedia search, we can learn whether there are precedents and how famous people with that name are rendered. On this page, for example, I find it written as 「ティモテウシュ」, as expected.

By the way, while it is true that native (and Sino-Japanese) words do not contain a separate from チ, most Japanese have no problem with pronouncing it, and there is a standardized way of writing it: ティ. (Of course, the vowel is not an exact match, but it is specifically rendered to Japanese as [i]: like here.)

So, ティモテウシュ is the answer.