I've seen many questions asked about the ん sound, both on this site and
others, but I'm still uncertain about how it should be produced before a
fricative (e.g. さ, し, ひ, ふ). So I'm hoping someone can give a good, thorough
answer if I ask about it specifically.

Different sources seem to give different pronunciations. Some sources say it
is similar to the English n or ng sound, but with the same place of
articulation as the following sound. So if it is followed by s it would be a
lamino-alveolar nasal. Some sources say it is like a nasalized う. Other
sources simply say it is a nasalized vowel.

So is one of these correct and the others incorrect. Are none of them correct.
Or does it vary by speaker. If it varies, is any pronunciation commonly
regarded as standard and/or more neutral. The opinions of native speakers or
those familiar with Japanese linguistics would be especially appreciated.
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pronunciation phonology phonetics
Pronunciation of ん before a fricative
Before さ and し it is weakened or incomplete. When ひ or ふ come after ん in a
word (or compound word), they are transformed to the non-fricatives ぴ and ぷ .
E.g.

  * [反比例]{はん・ぴ・れい} 
  * [染筆]{せんぴつ} 
  * [選評]{せんぴょう} 
  * [認否]{にん・ぴ}

which at least doesn't conflict with your implicit assertion that ん followed
by a non-fricative is, or historically was, more pleasurable to utter than ん
followed by a fricative. Of course changing fricatives to non-fricative occurs
frequently in second syllables anyway, e.g. the older pronunciation
[日本]{にっぽん}, so that could be coincidental.

Notably, relatively new compounds like [計算表]{けい・さん・ひょう} and [新福島]{しん・ふく・しま}駅
don't replace the fricative. Also, the modern pronunciation [日本]{に・ほん} doesn't
replace the fricative.

I personally find it is more emotive to say [日本]{にっぽん} than [日本]{に・ほん}, but
choose according to TPO.
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Although, I know there so much diputes on Japanese ん sounds, as a native
speaker, I would like to say 'Don't care too much about sounds of ん' because
we have never learnt about sounds of ん. ん is ん to me. Nobody cares, if u can
pronounce n,m, and ng in English. All those sounds will work as ん sound in
Japanese.

As for nasalised sound, people from Chugoku district like me never pronounce
nasalised vowels. Tohoku dialects and Miyabi-go (mainly spoken among those
from nobility) still remain those sounds to a considerable extent. However, in
any case, most Japanese believe there is only one sound for ん.
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It's basically nasalized vowel ~~and it naturally turns into the nasal sound
in the position of alveolar fricative (さすせそ) or ひ/ふ's counterpart as a result
of motion of your tongue~~. (I don't think alveolar nasal is really sounding)
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The reason why you get different answers is, I guess, partly because personal
difference among speakers. The finest details are often varying from person to
person, situation to situation. Like if you pronounce somewhat like _imput_
instead of _input_ by accident in conversation, actually few people would
notice.

What is sure is that nasals with [release
burst](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_audible_release) are unacceptable with
unvoiced fricative. Release burst is the kind of sound you make when you
untouch the tongue from palate, and that usually heard as stops (p, t, k...)
itself. At the beginning of syllable everyone pronounces it, but at the end of
it some do while other don't (in English). For example, in [this page where
people pronounce _cat_](https://forvo.com/word/cat/), the user called Slick
holds the last _t_ unreleased, while FrazJam releases it. [When it comes to
_can_](https://forvo.com/word/cat/), the same guy Slick releases the final _n_
to make it sound like _n_ in _nat_ , as with most English speakers (in that
page, griffeblanche represents the unreleased _n_ best). This phenomenon also
triggers that _chance_ sounds like _chants_ , and sounds unnatural as
Japanese.

So your options are basically, a independent unreleased nasal stop or a
nasalized vowel:

  * [[-n̚s-]], [[-z̃s-]]†, [[-Ṽs-]] for [[s]] (サ・ス・セ・ソ)
  * [[-n~ɲ̚ɕ-]], [[-j̃ɕ-]]†, [[-Ṽɕ-]] for [[ɕ]] (シ・シャ・シュ・シェ・ショ)
  * [[-ŋ~ɴ̚h-]], [[-ɰ̃h-]]†, [[-Ṽh-]] for [[h]] (often is [[x~χ]] in Kanto) (ハ・ヘ・ホ)
  * [[-n~ɲ̚ç-]], [[-j̃ç-]]†, [[-Ṽç-]] for [[ç]] (ヒ・ヒャ・ヒュ・ヒェ・ヒョ)
  * [[-n̚ɸ-]], [[-ŋ~ɴ̚ɸ-]], [[-β̃ɸ-]]†, [[-Ṽ(ʷ)ɸ-]] for [[ɸ]] (フ・ファ・フィ・フェ・フォ)
  * for [[z]] and [[ʑ]] you can simply use [[n]]; doesn't matter if it sounds like [[-ndz-]] etc. since Standard Japanese has no distinction between [[z]] and [[dz]], [[ʑ]] and [[dʑ]].

† means that incomplete blocking of the stops listed before them would sound
like these ways.
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