Molva/Phonology

Primary vowels
Even though a total of 15 different vowels (8 short vowels + 7 long vowels) exist in Molva, only 6 vowels (3 pairs of short and long vowels) are considered "primary vowels". In Molvanian phonology, a primary vowel is a vowel that can appear in monosyllabic words.

The three primary vowel pairs are: /a/ ([a] + [a:]), /i/ ([ɪ] + [i:]) and /u/ ([ʊ] + [u:]).

Secondary vowels
All secondary vowels cannot appear on their own - they always appear in polysyllabic words. The reason for this is that all secondary vowels are actually umlauts of primary vowels; and since you need at least 2 vowels for an umlaut (one that is changed and one that changes), you need at least 2 syllables for secondary vowels.

Every primary vowel can force the other 2 primary vowels to become umlauts. The only exception is /i/ which is not affected by /u/.

Reduction vowels
The vowels [ə] and [ɐ] are allophones of short primary vowels in word-final open syllables: [ɐ] is an allophone of [a] and [ə] of [ɪ] and [ʊ]. Note that a reduction vowel will still force an umlaut.

Vowel sequences
In Molva, all vowel sequences are strictly forbidden - this includes diphthongs as well as hiatus (both within a word and between words). Most vowel sequences are broken apart by additional consonants.