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checked when stressed. The degree of checkness may vary and
depends on the following consonant.
Another articulatory characteristic of English vowels is
their length or quantity. The English Monophthongs are
traditionally divided into:
a) Short: [e] [ɒ] [i] [ʌ] [ǽ] [υ] [ə]

b) Long: [ɒ:] [I:] [a:] [u:] [ɜ:]
When sounds are used in connected speech they cannot
help being influenced by one another. Duration depends on the
following factors:
1) Its own length;
2) The accent of the syllable in which it occurs;
3) Phonetic context;
4) The position of the sound in a syllable;
5) The position in a rhythmic structure;
6) The position in a tone group;
7) The position in a phrase;
8) The position in an utterance;
9) The tempo of the whole utterance;
10) The type of pronunciation;
11) The style of pronunciation.
There is one more articulatory characteristic that needs our
attention that is tenseness. It characterizes the state of the organs of
speech at the moment of production of a vowel. Thus, long vowels
are tense while short vowels are lax. The following schemes may
illustrate the above-mentioned points of view on the English vowel
classification.

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