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Some people pronounce their [ʃ] not in the 'classic' way but by curving the tongue and bringing it forward toward the upper set of teeth. Here's an audio example I've created.

My question: is there a known IPA symbol for this, and are there any languages that use this pronunciation?

EDIT: here's a video depicting the pronunciation.

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    what do you mean by the classic way? This sounds like a perfectly normal /ʃ/ to me
    – Tristan
    Jul 13, 2021 at 10:16
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    What do you mean by “curving the tongue”? Which part of the tongue, and which way? The tongue is ‘curved’ in the standard, alveolar pronunciation of [ʃ] as well, after all. Jul 13, 2021 at 12:37
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    @gil_mo the fricative sound in a /ʃ/ is by definition already made with the tongue, not the teeth
    – Tristan
    Jul 13, 2021 at 13:03
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    a diagram of the tongue position in the mouth in both cases would probably be more helpful actually
    – Tristan
    Jul 13, 2021 at 13:21
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    which pronunciation is the video showing?
    – Tristan
    Jul 14, 2021 at 11:06

2 Answers 2

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Your sample is squarely in the range of IPA [ʃ], and not [ʂ], [ɕ] or [ç]. It sounds perfectly normal to me. This is the best place to get standard reference values for IPA letters. If you have samples that are distinct in some way, e.g. one speaker has pronunciation 1 and another has pronunciation 2, you can use IPA diacritics to "nudge" the phonetic values in some manner. For instance you could use the apical vs. laminal diacritics to distinguish two sub-types of [ʃ], if that is indeed what is going on. Bear in mind that people often "intuit" falsehoods about their articulation, so you ought to get objective evidence about articulatory state before making a claim about something that you can't actually inspect.

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  • I've added a video to the question.
    – gil_mo
    Jul 14, 2021 at 10:41
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You're still producing the same sound, just with a different tongue placement. I hear the difference, I do, but it's still /ʃ/.

If this is for a writing project, something to do with your education (self-edification or formal), or something else you'll have to explain the distinctive tongue placement for the /ʃ/.

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  • Thanks @Jaime, I'm asking out of sheer curiosity. Funny, but I hear a very different sound .
    – gil_mo
    Jul 22, 2021 at 6:44
  • Curiousity is wonderful. I'm uncertain what sound you must be hearing. The only other sound I can think that this would approximate would be the voiceless alveolar lateral fricative /ɬ/. Is that your voice in the video or an audio layover?
    – Jaime
    Jul 22, 2021 at 16:23
  • Well, it is not /ɬ/, and yes, it is my voice in the video. My intention was to show how this sound was produced, I guess it is still not clear in the video...
    – gil_mo
    Jul 23, 2021 at 17:18
  • I wish I could help more, but I'm like the rest. All I hear is /ʃ/. Sorry I couldn't do more.
    – Jaime
    Aug 3, 2021 at 21:44

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