The IPA for pinyin x Every single source I come across on google list the IPA of pinyin x as /ɕ/, or the voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative.

However, the sample sound on Wikipedia is quite distinct from it -- to me (born and raised in Beijing), it sounds more like pinyin sh, rather than x.


What is, with sources, the correct IPA for pinyin x?
If it is the voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative, what is, with
sources, the correct pronunciation of it?


I managed to find another website, which would be correct according to me, as the pinyin x's pronunciation:
http://www.internationalphoneticalphabet.org/ipa-sounds/ipa-chart-with-sounds/
Help:IPA/Mandarin on Wikipedia has x listed like this:

Wiktionary:ɕ has audio you can listen to too.
This is a bit of a random source but here it is anyway.
《哈尔滨方言词典》[ɕi]

WordyEnglish's Pinyin 拼音, Zhuyin 注音, IPA Comparison also shows:


宣
ɕyɛn

Bopomofo letter ㄒ which represents &quot;x&quot; is also exclusively:

(phoneme) IPA(key): /ɕ/

From《漢語拼音方案》we can see the following:

where x again matches up with zhuyin ㄒ or IPA /ɕ/.

Sh on the other hand is listed as:

Wiktionary:ʂ also has audio you can listen too here.
《哈尔滨方言词典》[ʂɿ]

As you can see the two are very close in sound, and are often confused as such by learners.
Probably the biggest difference is tongue positions:

vs.