Editing Moksha language (section)

===Vowels===
There are eight vowels with limited [[allophony]] and reduction of unstressed vowels.
Moksha has lost the original Uralic system of [[vowel harmony]] but maintains consonant-vowel harmony (palatalized consonants go with front vowels, non-palatalized with non-front).

{| class="wikitable"
!
! [[Front vowel|Front]]
! [[Central vowel|Central]]
! [[Back vowel|Back]]
|- align="center"
! [[Close vowel|Close]]
| {{IPAlink|i}}<br>{{angbr|и}}
| {{IPAlink|ɨ}}<br>{{angbr|ы}}
| {{IPAlink|u}}<br>{{angbr|у, ю}}
|- align="center"
! [[Mid vowel|Mid]]
| {{IPAlink|e}}<br>{{angbr|е, э}}
| {{IPAlink|ə}}<br>{{angbr|а, о, е}}
| {{IPAlink|o}}<br>{{angbr|о}}
|- align="center"
! [[Open vowel|Open]]
| {{IPAlink|æ}}<br>{{angbr|я, э, е}}
|
|{{IPAlink|ɑ}}<br>{{angbr|а}}
|}

There are some restrictions for the occurrence of vowels within a word:<ref>[[#Feoktistov 1993|Feoktistov 1993]], p. 182.</ref>
# {{IPA|[ɨ]}} is an allophone of the phoneme {{IPA|/i/}} after phonemically non-palatalized ("hard") consonants.<ref>[[#Feoktistov 1966|Feoktistov 1966]], p. 200.</ref>
# {{IPA|/e/}} does not occur after non-palatalized consonants, only after their palatalized ("soft") counterparts.
# {{IPA|/a/}} and {{IPA|/æ/}} do not fully contrast after phonemically palatalized or non-palatalized consonants.{{clarify|reason=What happens between palatalized and peripheral consonants?|date=June 2015}}
#* Similar to {{IPA|/e/}}, {{IPA|/æ/}} does not occur after non-palatalized consonants either, only after their palatalized counterparts.
#* After palatalized consonants, {{IPA|/æ/}} occurs at the end of words, and when followed by another palatalized consonant.
#* {{IPA|/a/}} after palatalized consonants occurs only before non-palatalized consonants, i.e. in the environment {{IPA|/CʲaC/}}.
# The mid vowels' occurrence varies by the position within the word:
#* In native words, {{IPA|/e, o/}} are rare in the second syllable, but common in borrowings from e.g. Russian.
#* {{IPA|/e, o/}} are never found in the third and following syllables, where only {{IPA|/ə/}} occurs.
#* {{IPA|/e/}} at the end of words is only found in one-syllable words (e.g. ''ве'' {{IPA|/ve/}} "night", ''пе'' {{IPA|/pe/}} "end"). In longer words, word-final {{angbr|е}} always stands for {{IPA|/æ/}} (e.g. ''веле'' {{IPA|/velʲæ/}} "village", ''пильге'' {{IPA|/pilʲɡæ/}} "foot, leg").<ref>[[#Feoktistov 1966|Feoktistov 1966]], p. 200–201.</ref>

Unstressed {{IPA|/ɑ/}} and {{IPA|/æ/}} are slightly reduced and shortened {{IPA|[ɑ̆]}} and {{IPA|[æ̆]}} respectively.