What sound is associated with the letter "ɑ"?

The sound associated with the letter "ɑ" is characterized as a low back unrounded vowel. This is often represented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) as /ɑ/, which is the sound you typically produce when saying "ah" as in "father" or "spa."

This sound is articulated with the mouth open and the tongue positioned low in the mouth, creating a spacious sound cavity. In phonetic terms, it is an unrounded vowel because the lips are not rounded during its production.

Choices that represent sounds such as "aw," "oh," and "oo" indicate different vowel qualities and tongue positions. For instance, "aw" involves a diphthong or a rounded vowel sound, "oh" corresponds to a mid back rounded vowel, and "oo" generally refers to the high back rounded vowel found in words like "moon." Thus, none of these alternatives accurately capture the sound produced by the letter "ɑ" as "ahhhhhh" does.