Syrenian/Phonology

All sounds in Syreni are voiced, that is, the vocal cords vibrate. Syreni are incapable of speaking without their vocal cords vibrating, so an utterance like 'psst!' is impossible for them.

Vowels

It is helpful to subdivide the many vowels into 'normal', '+RTR', '+rounding' and '+RTR,+rounding'. On the following chart in each group of four vowels, the top left is 'normal'. Moving to the right is '+RTR' and moving down is '+rounding.'

Syreni vowels in IPA

		Front		Central		Back
		-RTR	+RTR	-RTR	+RTR	-RTR	+RTR
High	-round	i	ɪ	ɨ	No	No	No
	+round	No	No	ʉ	No	u	ʊ
Mid	-round	e	ɛ	ɘ	No	No	No
	+round	No	No	ɵ	No	o	ɔ
Low	-round	æ	a	ä	No	No	ɑ

As you can see, front and back vowels contrast for +/- RTR, while central vowels contrast for rounding. Rounding is not phonemic for low vowels. /ä/ and /ɑ/ are grouped together as a back-vowel pair. There are no diphthongs but vowel hiatus usually contracts to vowel + approximant. Vowels become their semi-vowel counterparts according to the following pattern:

	Front	Central	Back
High	/j/	/ð/	/w/
Mid	/l/	/ɻ/	/ʁ/
Low	/ɦ/	No	/ʕ/

Length is normal or long (e.g. a vs. aː). Vowel length is not intrinsic to the vowel, but used to mark focus or emphasis.

Consonants

First, there is the table of all sounds that occur:

	Bilabial	Dental*	Alveolar	Post-Alv.	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Glottal
Nasal	m		n			ŋ	ɴ
Stop	b~ⱱ̟		d~ɾ			g	ɢ
Fricative	β		z~z͎	ʒ~ʒꟹ		ɣ
Approximant		ð	l~ɫ	ɻ	j	w~ɰ	ʁ	ʕ	ɦ
Trill	ʙ	r̝͆	r				ʀ
Click	ʘ~ʬ		!

* Syreni teeth are very sharp, so their tongues do not ever go over the ridge of their teeth.

Affricates are phonemically distinguished. The possibilities are bβ, dz, dʒ, dð, ɡɣ, ɢʁ

Transcription

The Syreni themselves have no writing system (and no need for one). Because of the large number of sounds present, a "romanization" scheme is not possible without some diacritical marks. Marks above the letter are reserved for tone indications, while marks below tell one sound from another. There are only five vowel letters in the Roman alphabet (just a,e,i,o,u), so these have to be supplemented with ʊ, æ and ǝ. A dot underneath changes the vowel to its only possible partner, either +rounding or +RTR.

Syreni vowels in transcription

	Front		Central		Back
High	i	ı̣	ʊ	No	No	No
	No	No	ʊ̣	No	u	ụ
Mid	e	ẹ	ə	No	No	No
	No	No	ə̣	No	o	ọ
Low	æ	æ̣	a	No	No	ạ

I may be written with or without the dot (as in Turkish) but is nonetheless acceptable with it.

For consonants, the aforementioned table connecting vowels to approximants is vitally important. Next, the basic series of stops in any language is typically represented with 'p,t,k', so that was done here. 'p,d,g (and j)' were therefore requisitioned to be fricatives. The only (non-approximant) diacritic is ṇ for the uvular nasal.

	Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Post-Alv.	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Glottal
Nasal	m		n			ŋ	ṇ
Stop	p		t			k	q
Fricative	b		d	j		g
Approximant		ʊ̪	e̪	ǝ̪	i̪	u̪	o̪	a̪	æ̪
Trill	v	z	r				x
Click	w		c

Unused English letters are f, h, l, s, and y.

Tone

Relative pitch of Syreni tones: Sol, Do, Mi

Syreni has three tones. Mid tone is typically unmarked, but can be indicated by a macron. This is usually reserved for syllabic consonants. High tone always receives an acute. Low tone receives a grave. This means all possible vowels are:

• i, ı̣, ʊ, ʊ̣, u, ụ, e, ẹ, ə, ə̣, o, ọ, æ, æ̣, a, ạ, í, ı̣́, ʊ́, ʊ̣́, ú, ụ́, é, ẹ́, ə́, ə̣́, ó, ọ́, ǽ, ǽ̣, á, ạ́, ì, ı̣̀, ʊ̀, ʊ̣̀, ù, ụ̀, è, ẹ̀, ə̀, ə̣̀, ò, ọ̀, æ̀, æ̣̀, à, ạ̀
  • The first 16 can be written ī, ı̣̄, ʊ̄, ʊ̣̄, ū, ụ̄, ē, ẹ̄, ə̄, ə̣̄, ō, ọ̄, ǣ, ǣ̣, ā, ạ̄

Tone contours do not occur, even on long vowels, because length is only used to indicated emphasis. That is, the length of syllable nucleus is prosodic. Tone sandhi does not seem to occur.

Syllabification

Syreni syllables can be quite complex. Most syllable resemble English orthography, with onset consonants, a vowel in the nucleus, and coda consonants. A vowel may have no onset and/or no coda. Some syllables, however, look very strange to us.

Many English speakers give syllabic consonants the sustaining tone of a syllable during rapid speech (e.g. bullfight [ˈbɫ̩.fait], runner [ˈrʊn.ɹ̩], button [ˈbʌtn̩], (ideophone) bzzz [bz̩], (ideophone) hmm [hm̩ː], shouldn't've [ˈʃʊ.dn̩.tv̩], etc.) or when they are overly enunciating, as to children (e.g. TENTH! [ˈtʼɛn.ʔθ̩]. It is common transcribe these syllables with a schwa (ə), but if the tongue does not return to a central position, this is inaccurate. Syreni has syllabic consonants like this and more.