Vowels! They play a major role in this language. And there are quite a lot of them. New Common Lhuvan has got sixteen vowels, not regarding diphthongs and triphthongs. Lean back and enjoy. These are the five, so called, basic vowels. You will possibly notice, that the feature definition of the most vowels is not fully "correct". I have used a minimalistic system of features. A specific sound is defined by only those features which clearly distinguish it from another. [a] is "regarded" as a [+front|+low] sound, though it "is" [-front|+low]. Actually this is a phonological problem, not a phonetical. In some northern dialects of Lhuvan 'a' is pronounced [æ], that is [+front|+low].

/i/, a [+front|+high] vowel like 'ee' in "heed", 'ie' in German "tief", French "lit" or "vie"

/e/, a [+front|-high] vowel like 'e' in German "Esel", French "les" or 'é' in "été"

/a/, a [-front|+low] vowel like German short 'a' or French "là".
Phonologically defined as [+front|+low].

/O/, a [+back|-high] vowel like 'o' in English "more", French "homme" or "loque" or German "komm" or "Lok"

/u/, a [+back|+high] vowel like 'o(u)' in British-English "do you" (even more centralized).

Another two sets of vowels are umlauted vowels and doubled vowels.

Umlaut is a phonological phenomenom that I will discuss later. The corresponding feature is [umlaut] that is in fact [+front] as primary and [+long|αround] as secondary features.

Doubling is a vowel change due to the primary feature [+long].

/y/, a [+front|+high|+round|+long] vowel like 'u(e)' in French "lu" or "rue" or German long 'ü' in "Tür". Rounded /i/.

/ø/, a [+front|-high|+round|+long] vowel like 'ö' in German "Öfen" or 'eux' in French "deux". Rounded /e/.

/E/, a [+front|-high|+long] vowel like 'e' in French "merci" or German 'ä' in "Mähne".

/æ/, a [+front|+low|+long] vowel like 'a' in English "mad".

/å/, a [+back|+low|+long] vowel like British English 'o' in "job" or "hot".

/o/, a [+back|-high|+long] vowel like 'o' in German "Ofen" or French "lot".

/u/, a [+back|+high|+long] vowel like 'ou(e)' in French "loup" or "roue" or 'u' in German "Mut".

In certain phonological contexts vowels become reduced. This laxing of vowels is the result of reduction of stress. Non-stressed syllables are often reduced to their corresponding central lax vowel. All features are lost except [αlevel]. So there are three schwas: high,mid, and low. The high, rounded vowel is not a schwa.

[I], a [+high]schwa.

[U], a [+high|+round]vowel.

[@], a [-high]schwa.

[&], a [+low]schwa.

The following five charts show diphthongs and triphongs. Diphthongs are made up of either a basic or umlaut vowel plus [I] or [U].

[aI], a [+low] -> [+front|+high] diphthong.

[eI], a [+front|-high] -> [+front|+high] diphthong.

[oI], a [+back|-high] -> [+front|+high] diphthong.

[uI], a [+back|+high] -> [+front|+high] diphthong.

[aU], a [+low] -> [+back|+high] diphthong.

[eU], a [+front|-high] -> [+back|+high] diphthong.

[iU], a [+front|+high] -> [+back|+high] diphthong.

[oU], a [+back|-high] -> [+back|+high] diphthong.

[æI], a [+front|+low|+long] -> [+front|+high] diphthong.

[EI], a [+front|-high|+long] -> [+front|+high] diphthong.

[øI], a [+front|-high|+long|+rounded] -> [+front|+high] diphthong.

[yI], a [+front|+high|+long|+rounded] -> [+front|+high] diphthong.

[æU], a [+front|+low|+long] -> [+back|+high] diphthong.

[EU], a [+front|-high|+long] -> [+back|+high] diphthong.

[øU], a [+front|-high|+long|+rounded] -> [+back|+high] diphthong.

[yU], a [+front|+high|+long|+rounded] -> [+back|+high] diphthong.

[aIU], a [+low] -> [+back|+high] triphthong.

[eIU], a [+front|-high] -> [+back|+high] triphthong.

[iIU], a [+front|+high] -> [+back|+high] triphthong.

[uIU], a [+back|+high] -> [+back|+high] triphthong.

[oIU], a [+back|-high] -> [+back|+high] triphthong.

[Lhuvan phonolgy 6]