Re: Interdental fricatives and affricates (Lisp)

Caleb Hines wrote:
> I have two allophones for /s/:
>
> /s/  -> [T], [T-], where
> [T]  -> Interdental fricative (this one is the most common by far)
Really interdental? Your tongue sticks out a little beyond the bottom of the
upper front teeth??  If so, try retracting it so that the tongue tip is in
contact with the inside lower edge of the teeth.  That, in my book, is a
proper [T] = /T/ as in thick, thin etc., which in fact is what you describe
next----

> [T-] -> Postdental fricative (tongue touching the inside bottom of the
> upper
> front teeth, air blown through gap between two front teeth.)
Hmm, the problem may be the gap between your teeth. Is it large?

[s] can be pronounced in a variety of ways, one of which was described by
James W. His way, I think, is what we've been calling "apical s"-- the
friction is actually produced between the tongue tip and the alv. ridge or
the upper teeth.  That's not the way I do it-- in my case, the tongue tip is
against the upper inside surface of the _lower_ front teeth, with the
friction produced between the blade of the tongue and the alv. ridge (the
sides of the tongue are also pressed quite tightly against the upper
molars-- I think this produces a narrowed groove down the middle of the
tongue, which also causes turbulence), and the air flows down over the back
sides of the upper teeth.  (This is also the sound I make when hissing, e.g.
imitating a snake. How would you imitate a snake??)

It could be that the gap in your teeth is allowing too much air to escape,
so that it reduces the amount of friction you can produce in that area.
Consequently your [s] has never been as "hissy" as it ought. And if, when
you were young, nobody called attention to it (which includes teasing,
unfortunately), you simply remained unaware of it and had no incentive to
experiment with other ways of producing it.

There is a bona-fide speech therapist on the List, Dan Sulani.  Hopefully
he'll chime in with some professional advice.