Notation of retracted allophones

[Renaissance]

I am working on a conlang with a standard 5 vowel system /i, e, a, o, u/ (phonetically [i, e̞, a, o̞, u] and a distinction between plain and emphatic consonants. The emphatic consonants are either velarized (bilabials consonants) or pharyngeal (non-biliabial consonants). The vowels surrounding velarized bilabials are retracted while the ones surrounding are retracted and significantly lowered. I wonder how I can represent this phonetic different best in phonetic transcription:


Vowels:
/i, e, a, o, u/
Plain:
[i, e̞, a, o̞, u]
Pharyngealized
[i̙, e̙, a̙, o̙, u̙] (Phonetically closer to [ɪ, ɐ, ɑ~ɑ̞, ɔ~ɒ, ʊ~ɔ])

Velarized option A:
[ɪ, ɛ, ɑ, ɔ, ʊ]

Velarized option B: [ɨ, ə, ɑ, ɔ, ʊ]


What are your opinions on this. Thank you for your replies :)

[Sequor]

Well, how much retraction is there really? Option A implies less retraction for /i e/ than Option B. That's what it comes down to.

Also, regarding your pharyngealized phones, you should use [ɑ̝] (with a "raised" diacritic) for an [ɑ] that is pronounced a bit higher towards [ʌ], not "[ɑ̞]".

[Renaissance]

Then I think I'll go for option B. The retraction is going to be pretty audible, I am also thinking of making uvularizing the bilibials instead.

On the other hand, I just want to speak the language up to the point these allophones will develop naturally. I will probably have to record myself and measure what the actual formants of these vowels are.

[Creyeditor]

Okay, some background first:
Retraction can mean at least two different things when applied to vowels. Retraction in the narrow sense means that a vowel is pronounced with the back of the tongue (dorsum) raised to a point further back in the mouth than the unmodified version of the vowel. This is indicated by the the minus below in IPA: [i̠ u̠ e̠ o̠ a̠]. This means [i̠] is a bit closer to [ɨ], but [u̠] just moves further away from it. Retraction is also sometimes used to refer to vowel that are pronounced with a retracted tongue root. The root of the tongue narrows the vocal tract a bit here. This is officially notated in the IPA with a rightward tack below the letter: [i̙ u̙ e̙ o̙ a̙]. Many people feel that these look clumsy and they use the lax version of the vowels instead, because they sound very similar auditorily: [ɪ, ʊ, ɛ, ɔ, a], with [a] contrasting with [æ]. True pharyngealization is the narrowing of the pharynx and can occur in vowels and continuant consonants. IPA uses the superscipted glyph for the pharyngeal glide here: [iˤ uˤ eˤ oˤ aˤ]. It also has the effect of making vowels acoustically more back and/or lower, by medling with the formants. Note that the same is usually true for uvularization, uvular consonants and pharyngeal consonants. Since lowering and backing would require two diacritics on a singly symbol, many people prefer to use a diferent glyph alltogether, e.g. [ɪ, ʊ, ɛ, ɔ, ɑ] which looks similar --- but not identical --- to the lax vowel symbols used for retracted tongue root. Velarization of consonants on the other hand usually has different effects on front and rounded vowels. Front vowel are slightly backed whereas back vowels become slightly less rounded.

In your conlang, you say that vowels are retracted adjacent to velarized labials and retracted plus lowered adjacent to pharyngeal(ized) ones. IMHO, you should use a different glyph for one of them and a diacritic for the other if they can cooccur on the same vowel. I really prefer [Vˤ] for pharyngealization (i.e. lowering and retraction). If they cannot cooccur you could also use [V̠] for retraction. That would fit very good together, especially because the minus looks like an underline.