What makes the same sound as sh

More information at the end of the video. I got a request recently to compare these two consonants. The S sound can actually be made two different ways: one with the tongue tip pointing up, and one with it pointing down. I make the S with the tongue tip pointing down. Notice how the corners of my lips are either relaxed, ss, or pull out, ss. This is different from SH, shhh, where the corners come in and the lips flare. You can see that not only is the lip position different, but the tongue position too.

For the S sound, the tongue tip touches the back of the bottom front teeth. For the SH sound, the tongue tip lifts to the middle of the mouth. Just look at my mouth. Which sound am I making? The S sound. My lips did not flare. The vowel in that syllable is a high, back vowel and sometimes consonants change to be more like the vowels that are near them.

It's called assimilation. I've noticed many Scottish and Irish Gaelic words to be spelled with an s , followed by a vowel, and pronounced like sh.

Think about the way Sean Connery speaks not to mention how the Se in his name is pronounced. Read the section on nomenclature here and click on some of the links about Anglic and Scots Yes, I realize I'm quoting Wikipedia, but there is a source attached to this quote. Note how the s is pronounced sh :.

Prior to the 15th century, the Anglic speech of the Lowlands was known as Inglis "English" , with Gaelic being called Scottis "Scottish". From the late 15th century, however, it became increasingly common to refer to Scottish Gaelic as Erse "Irish" and the Lowland vernacular as Scottis.

There is also some good information about Scottish Gaelic orthography and phonology that you might find useful if you can read IPA. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Why are "sugar" and "sure" pronounced with an SH?

Ask Question. Asked 10 years, 4 months ago. Active 4 years ago. Viewed 39k times. Improve this question. Daniel Daniel We get those later two words in English a bit more directly as shaker small spice dispenser, typically for salt or pepper and saccharine overly sweet. Could this be palatalization or something similar?

It is quite clear that in general, over time, 'su' has come to be pronounced as '-shu', perhaps from an Arabic origin but not confirmed to my knowledge.

It is an interesting observation however, showing existence of different pronunciations for different letter combinations, in English, similar to French or Spanish.

Show 1 more comment. Active Oldest Votes. This interesting page explains that sugar used to be pronounced originally with a common su sound, but emphases mine Improve this answer. Any phonetics discussion that says things like "relax the mouth and tongue" and "easier for slack-jawed English speakers" is, frankly, highly dubious. There is no scientific phonetic support for arguments like that. Add a comment. Jon Purdy Jon Purdy Granta explains: Sugar , sure and sumac are the only three in Modern English, but historically there were others.

According to Beal, much of the seventeenth-century evidence for the palatalization of preceding alveolar consonants [ PeterShor: That might be a relevant factor. One word that I left out because it's rare and has an unusual spelling is "grossular.