Hi again and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English pronunciation podcast.

My name is Mandy, and this is our 154th episode.

She sells seashells by the seashore was one of my favorite tongue twisters when I was growing up.

If you want to practice alternating the S sound and S-H sound, there is nothing better.

I was surprised to recently learn that the tongue twister was written for a real-life woman named Mary Anning.

Mary was born back in 1799.

Throughout her life, she became well known in the scientific realm for having made some important scientific fossil discoveries.

She made these discoveries when she was out collecting

seashells on the beach. She was collecting the shells to sell in order to help support her family.

In the process of collecting and selling, she discovered new species of sea life. In 1908, Terry Sullivan wrote the children's tongue twister,

She Sells Seashells, based on Ms. Anning.

Even though Mary Anning had a very interesting life,

my goal here today is not to teach you about her interesting finds,

I just want to help you pronounce the

S-H sound and S-sound more clearly.

Hopefully you remember from past episodes that the S-S-sound and S-H-sound are in the category

of fricatives. A fricative is a sound that is created when air is pushed out through a small

opening in the vocal tract. When practicing the S sound and S-H sound, you should also know

that these sounds are both unvoiced. This means that the vocal cords do not vibrate during the production

of these sounds. And finally, to be able to talk about the S sound and S-H sound, you have to be able to

identify your tooth ridge. The tooth ridge is the bony bump behind your top front teeth. You can easily

feel your tooth ridge with the tip of your tongue. The S sound is produced when the tip of the tongue

...