Articulatory classification of English vowels

Vowels
unlike consonants are produced with no obstruction to the stream of air, so on the perception level their integral characteristic is naturally tone, not noise.

The following 20 vowel phonemes are distinguished in BBC English:
[i:, a:, ɔ:, u:, з:, ı, e, æ, ɔ, υ, ʌ, ə; eı, aı, ɔı, аυ, ou, eǝ, υə, ıə].

A minimum vowel system of a language is likely to take the form of triangle
ı u
a

The most important characteristic of these vowels
acoustically stable
entirely different from one another both articulatorily and acoustically.
→ they form boundaries of "phonetic field of vowels" in a modern man's life.

Vowel quality
a bundle of definite articulatory characteristics:
size,
volume,
shape of the mouth resonator,
relative stability of the tongue,
the position of the lips,
physical duration of the segment,
the force of articulation,
the degree of tenseness of speech organs

D. Jones
The first linguist who tried to describe and classify vowels for all languages.
He devised the system of 8 Cardinal Vowels.
The basis of the system is physiological.

Cardinal vowels
No. 1 → the position of the front part of the tongue raised as closed as possible to the palate
No. 5 → the gradual lowering of the tongue to the back lowest position
No. 4 → the lowest front position of the tongue
No. 8 → the upper back limit for the tongue position

The tongue positions between these points were X-rayed and the equidistant points for No.2, 3, 6, 7 were found.
The IPA symbols (International Phonetic Alphabet) for the 8 Cardinal Vowels are:
1 -i, 2 - e, 3 - ε, 4 - a, 5 - a:, 6 - ɔ, 7 - o, 8 - u.

Russian phoneticians
a classification of vowels according to the following principles:
stability of articulation;
tongue position;
lip position;
character of the vowel end;
length;
tenseness.

Stability of articulation
specifies the actual position of the articulating organ in the process of the articulation of a vowel:
the tongue position is stable (articulated vowel is relatively pure)
it changes, that is the tongue moves from one position to another (a vowel consists of two clearly perceptible elements)
an intermediate case, when the change in the tongue position is fairly weak.

According to Russian scholars vowels are subdivided into:
monophthongs (the tongue position is stable);
diphthongs (it changes, that is the tongue moves from one position to another);
diphthongoids (an intermediate case, when the change in the position is fairly weak).

P. Roach → British English (BBC accent) has short vowels, long vowels and diphthongs.
A.C. Gimson distinguishes 20 vocalic phonemes which are made of vowels and vowel glides.

Phonemic status of English diphthongs
Diphthongs are complex entities like affricates:
monophonemic units? or
biphonemic units?
no simple and logic criterion

Russian scholars
English diphthongs → monophonemic status
↓
arliculatory,
morphonological
and syllabic indivisibility + the criteria of duration and commutability

Articulatory indivisibility
neither morpheme nor syllable boundary that separate the nucleus and the glide can pass within it
['seı-ıŋ] saying, ['kraı-ıŋ] crying, [ın-'ʤɔı-ıŋ] enjoying, ['puǝ-rǝ] poorer.

Duration of diphthongs
the length of diphthongs is the same as the English long monophthongs in the same phonetic context
[saıt - si:t], [kout - kɔ:t].

Commutation test
proves the monophonemic status of diphthongs → any diphthong could be commutated with practically any vowel.
[bait – bıt] bite - bit
[bait - bʌt] bite - but
[bait - bɔ:t] bite - bought

D. Jones
diphthongs are unisyllabic gliding sounds
in the articulation the organs of speech start from one position and then elide to another position.
two vowels [i:, u:] may have a diphthongal glide where they have full length (be, do)
tendency for diphthongization is becoming gradually stronger.

The position of the tongue
is characterized from two aspects:
horizontal movement
vertical movement

According to the horizontal movement
Russian phoneticians distinguish five classes:
front: [i:], [e], [eı], [æ], [eǝ]
front-retracted: [ı], [ıǝ]
central: [æ], [ǝ:], [ǝ], [eu]
back: [ɔ], [ɔ:], [u:], [a:]
back-advanced: [u], [uǝ].

British phoneticians
do not single out the classes of front-retracted and back-advanced vowels.
→ both [i:] and [ı] are classed as front
→ both [u:] and [u] are classed as back.

According to the vertical movement
British scholars distinguish three classes of vowels:
high (or close),
mid (or half-open),
low (or open) vowels.

According to the vertical movement
Russian phoneticians → more detailed classification:
distinguishing two subclasses in each class, i.e. broad and narrow variations of the three vertical positions.
↓ ↓
six groups of vowels are distinguished

Lip position
Three lip positions are distinguished:
spread,
neutral,
rounded.

Lip rounding
is not relevant phonologically → no two words can be differentiated on its basis.
takes place rather due to physiological reasons than to any other.

Lip rounding
Any back vowel in English is produced with rounded lips
the degree of rounding is different and depends on the height of the raised part of the tongue
the higher it is raised the more rounded the lips are.

Character of the vowel end
This quality depends on the kind of the articulatory transition from a vowel to a consonant.
This transition (VC) is very closed in English unlike Russian.
→ all English short vowels are checked when stressed.

Character of the vowel end
The degree of checkness may vary and depends on the following
consonants.
Before fortis voiceless consonant it is more perceptible than before a lenis voiced consonant or sonorant.
All long vowels are free.

Vowel length or quantity
A vowel like any sound has physical duration.
Sounds are used in connected speech
are influenced by one another.

Vowel length or quantity
Duration of a vowel depends on:
its own length;
the accent of the syllable in which it occurs;
phonetic context;
the position in a rhythmic structure;
the position in a tone group;
the position in an utterance;
the tempo of the whole utterance;
the type of pronunciation, etc.