93988
I've been reading about the sounds of Japanese and always thought the あ's
highest point is shown as in this diagram:

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/8jeCl.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/8jeCl.png)

Which I learned narrowly can be transcribed like [ɑ̞] (the diagram is taken
from [here](https://www.imabi.net/japanesephonology.htm), which my book also
shows it as)

But reading more, I stumble upon for example from the [Japanese
wikipedia](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E8%AA%9E%E3%81%AE%E9%9F%B3%E9%9F%BB)
this one:

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/GOetB.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/GOetB.png)

Which one would be the most correct in most cases?
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-03-18T11:08:15.897
93757
2022-04-05T11:28:25.023
2022-03-18T18:28:47.607
50132
50132
question
phonetics
How is the あ vowel produced?
Both are correct, there is no set-in-stone answer as the difference in
pronunciation is slight. As you said, the pronunciation depends on context.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-04-04T22:06:38.353
93988
2022-04-05T11:28:25.023
2022-04-05T11:28:25.023
50991
50991
93757
answer