Robert Henry Codrington, an Anglican priest who studied Melanesian societies, first described Mwotlap in 1885.

Volow, which is extinct today, was spoken in the east of Mota Lava, in the area of Aplow.

This article uses the orthography devised by linguist Alexandre François, based on the Latin alphabet.

Mwotlap has 7 phonemic vowels, which are all short monophthongs, with no diphthongs being present in the language.

Mwotlap's syllable structure is (C)V(C), historically resulting from the syncope of unstressed vowels in pre-modern times.

These prefixes form nō-vōy 'volcano', ni-hiy 'bone', and to-M̄otlap 'from Mota Lava', but also na-pnō 'island' and na-nye-k 'my blood'.

The system of personal pronouns contrasts clusivity, and distinguishes four numbers (singular, dual, trial, plural).