Shiiran

[nxh]

Shiiran, tiqlen [tsiɬin] or tii suirabi [tsaj ɕiːdami]
speak-NZ-1.PL.INTR-DECL, or speak Shiira-GEN; a scratchpad-esque thing I guess

Shiiran is an attempt to get back into conlanging with something nice and polysynthetic. Shiiran is spoken by the Shiira people in a world much like our own. (I'll make more culture maybe later).

Phonology

Short Vowels a i u e /a i u i/. /u/ drops word-finally.
(Historic) Diphthongs / Long Vowels aa ai ae ii ui ie iu ei ee uu eu /a: e: aj eː i: i: ju i: e: u: ə/

Consonants: (any sound changes noted here occur before vowel shifts)
Initial consonants:
b: Usually /b/. Intervocallically: /m/ before i, /w/ before u, /ʋ/ before e (though later /ʋe/ > /wi/). Also <bu> is /m/ word-finally.
p: Usually /p/.
k: Usually /k/, but /tɕ/ before i.
t: Usually /t/, but /ts/ before i/u.
l: Usually /l/, but /n/ word-initially. /Vli/ > /Vi/.
j: Usually /j/, but null before i, /ɟ/ before a.
s: Usually /s/, /ɕ/ before i/u.
r: Usually /ɾ/, except /Vɾi/ > /Vi/ and /ɾa/ > /da/
All words start with a (phonemic) consonant or a glottal stop, thus <ji> contrasts with <i> [ʔi] word-initially.
Final consonants:
n: Usually /n/, though nb /m/; np /mp/; nk /Nk/ (even before i); nl /lː/; Vnj /Ṽj/; nr /nd/.
q: Usually /ʔ/. /qC/ > /Cː/ where C is any voiceless stop. Also, ql /ɬ/; qb /pː/; qj /kj/ > /ts/; qr /ʔd/.
Before q, any vowel clusters reduce to the first vowel.
Also, as /n/ is historically an allophone of /l/, /n/ becomes /l/ intervocalically.

Pitch accent: Uniform with a pitch drop at the beginning of every word, with the exception that monosyllabic words are pronounced with a high tone consistently.

A couple roots/words and a bit of grammar:

tii- /tsaj/ speak [a language], language; sometimes by extension [to speak] the Shiiran language.
ken- /kin/ person, walk (on two feet).
bira- /mida/ to look at
inlesu, tii inlesu /ʔilːeɕ/, /tsaj ʔilːeɕ/ English (such a word doesn't exist to the Shiira, but I'm too lazy to invent a bunch of exonyms yet so I'm using this for the sake of easy examples)

Verbs inflect for subject and object.

[g=speak-1.SG.NOM]tii-la[/g]
I am speaking / I spoke.

[g=see-1.SG.NOM-3.ACC]bira-la-i[/g]
I am/was looking at it/him/her/them.

[g=see-1.SG.NOM-3.ACC]bira-le-i[/g]
We are/were looking at it/him/her/them.

[g=see-2.SG.NOM-1.PL.ACC]bira-ja-sa[/g]
You (sg.) are/were looking at us.

[g=see-2.PL.NOM-1.SG.ACC]bira-je-tu[/g]
You (pl.) are/were looking at me.

[g=see-3.NOM-2.ACC]bira-lin-ka[/g]
He/She/It/They is/was/are/were looking at you.

Verbs also mark for the gnomic aspect (-/n/ after a vowel, -/lun/ after a final consonant).
Often, the gnomic aspect gives a very different meaning from the indicative, as shown:

[g=speak-1.SG.NOM-IND]tii-la-Ø[/g]
I am speaking / I spoke.

[g=speak-1.SG.NOM-GNO]tii-la-n[/g]
I speak/used to speak [Shiiran].

[g=English-ACC]inlesu-i[/g] [g=speak-1.SG.NOM-3.SG.ACC-GNO]tii-la-i-n[/g]
I speak/used to speak English.

[g=walk-1.PL.NOM-IND]ken-le-Ø[/g]
We are walking / We walked.

[g=walk-1.PL.NOM-GNO]ken-le-n[/g]
We are/used to be people. (lit. We walk / used to walk (on two legs)).

[g=see-3.NOM-2.ACC-IND]bira-lin-ka-Ø[/g]
He/She/It/They were looking at you.

[g=see-3.NOM-2.ACC-GNO]bira-lin-ka-n[/g]
He/She/It/They is/are/was/were watching you.

Anyhow, that's it for basic stuff; I'll come back when I have more to add, I guess

[EDIT: change language name from <Shiran>]

[mèþru]

Your second set of vowels are long vowels, not diphthongs.

[Zaarin]

You have some really interesting allophony, which I like because it's not something I'm good at myself.

[nxh]

Your second set of vowels are long vowels, not diphthongs.

Wasn't sure what to call them; most of those were at least historically diphthongs though.

[hwhatting]

Your second set of vowels are long vowels, not diphthongs.

Wasn't sure what to call them; most of those were at least historically diphthongs though.

Well, actually, there are a mixture of both; the ones containing ":" are long vowels, the others are diphthongs.

[mèþru]

Technically, /ə/ isn't either.

[hwhatting]

Technically, /ə/ isn't either.

Yes, I overlooked that one - why is it in the second series at all?

[mèþru]

@hwhatting

most of those were at least historically diphthongs though.

[hwhatting]

@hwhatting

most of those were at least historically diphthongs though.

That still doesn't make schwa a long vowel or diphthong synchronically.

[mèþru]

I would guess that /ə/ belongs to a single phonemic category which contains all of the diphthongs and long vowels, or that the distinction between vowels and "diphthongs" is made for orthographic purposes.

[Zaarin]

@hwhatting

most of those were at least historically diphthongs though.

That still doesn't make schwa a long vowel or diphthong synchronically.

It's not really that unusual for grammatical descriptions to be diachronic. /ɑʊ̯ ɔʊ̯ ɛɪ̯ ɑɪ̯/ (historically /uː ɔː aː iː/) are still described by most English-speakers as "long vowels," even though they've been diphthongs for over five hundred years. If Shiiran /ə/ came from a diphthong (odd but not unheard of), then it could plausibly still be described as such in modern Shiiran grammars.

[hwhatting]

All good points, but instead of us second-guessing nxh, maybe we wait for his explanation?