Where should your tongue be when pronoucing the letter /s/?

Question

i wasn't sure what category to put this in. for some reason im getting my pesky lisp back. its not really noticeable, no one has ever pointed it out, but i know its there. i haven't talked with a lisp for like 8 years (i went to speech therapy), then one day i started thinking about it and it came back. :(

So, yeah, where should your tongue be placed? (im going to do tongue twisters and practice until i get rid of it)

Answer 1

My tongue is pressed behind the row of lower teeth.

Answer 2

This is interesting.  I've been sitting her trying to say 's' words with and without a lisp to see what the difference is. (Admit it, you're all doing the same thing!)  I'm not a speech pathologist.  This is actually very subtle and tricky. I hope a speech path. answers for you.

First, my tongue can make an 's' sound in a number of positions, so I think I've determined that for me, the 's' sound is from my front teeth.  They are close together and the air coming through them makes the proper 's' sound.

You can put your teeth together and then move the tip of your tongue from behind the top teeth all the way down to behind the bottom teeth and the quality of the 's' changes somewhat.  Much better 's' sounds when your tongue is behind your lower teeth.

In order to lisp I have to put my tongue between my teeth.  If my teeth are closed together I am unable to lisp.

I can see that this is an easy thing to obsess over.  I hope you get your mojo back.  Good luck!

Answer 3

behind your top front teeth near the roof of your mouth

Answer 4

well I just now actually had to think about it and from checking, my mouth is slightly almost closed with my tongue somewhat at the roof of my mouth, when I'm actually trying to say the letter it's not really at the roof of my mouth but when I say a s word like snake it's at the back of my teeth.

Goodluck with the twisters

Answer 5

years ago when i was a kid, i took speech threapy (for my s and r sounds)

i was taught to place the tounge in about the same spot you put it when you pronouce the letter t.  my speach therapist would have me blend the t and the s sound (tssssssssssss) until i got the motion and was able to drop the t.

Answer 6

The tip of your tongue usually points downwards just behidn your bottome front teeth. A lower 's' sound as in 'summer' usually means a larger area of the front of your tongue is pushed to the bottom of your mouth, and a higher 's' sound such as in 'sister' usually only requires a little bit of your tongue to be pressed to the bottom. Just try to keep the front 5th of your tongue and the roof of your mouth out of contact and let the 's' sound come from between your front teeth rather than the middle few teeth on either side. You should also get a feel for the position of your lips when you try to get back to a more common pronunciation.