When I started writing this post, I wanted to write a focus post about my clong's use of Zhuyin characters as a substitute for the Chinese hanzi letters in writing. ☺️ Later on, I realised it had developed into a post about the language in general, because I couldn't really go through that feature without explaining large swats of the language in any case. Any feedback on any of this would still be appreciated! ^;^

What Lysene is all about

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• Lysene is my first clong. I'm not a linguist, though I did study some aspects of it when I took a communications course at Uni (so I started out knowing what a "morpheme" was, at least).
• Lysene is an artlang for a conworld of mine, where some short stories I've written take place. It is mainly spoken by a group of colonialist merfolk (elves) in a vaguely iron age, magical, "grimbright" setting (quite decadent and stagnant - but no "big bad" around). I hope to develop a language that reflects their cultural values (including some quirks like.. the fact that some among them don't using terms like "values", or "facts" for that matter).
• More than anything though - I think of conlanging is a way for me to explore linguistics and related topics (such as prosody or sociolinguistics) in a fun and creative way. So nothing here is set in stone, really. The grammar - in particular - is really on the planning stage, and I could really use some feedback. ☺️
• I also hope to learn a bit of Welsh and Mandarin along the way... ^_^

Phonology

Gah... as much as a disadvantage that may be for a clonging - I should probably admit I'm not big on making charts. I'm probably a little bit more artistically inclined. But I tried, at least. ☺️ My way of transcribing these phonemes are written in bold.
Vowels:

	front		back
close	/y/ y	/ɨ/ i , /ÿ/ u	w
	/e/ e*
	/ɛ/ e	/ɐ/ o, a*
open	/a/ ~ /ä/ a

*mainly when non-syllabic, ie in diphtongs
Consonants:

	Bi­labials	Dentals	Alveolars	Retro­flex	Palatals	Velars	Glottals
Nasals	/m/ m	/ɱ/ m̧		/ɳ/ ņ**	/ɲ/ ñ
Stops	/b/ b			/ʈ/ t**, /ɖ/ ḑ**	/ɟ/ j
Affricates		/d̪ð/ d				/kx/ c, /ɡɣ/ qu, /χ/ x**
Fricatives	/ɸ/ ꝑ	/v/ v, /θ/ þ	/s/ s, /z/ z, /ɹ̠˔/ **r, /ʃ/ ş, /ʒ/ ʒ	/ʐ/ z̧	/j/ (/i̯/) i***		/ɦ/* h
approximants		/w/ (/u̯/) w***		/ɻ/ ŗ**
Laterals		/ɮ/ ļ	/l/ l	/ɭ/ ɫ
Implosives	/ɓ/ b̧

*appears after a falling tone, when a word ends with a vowel
** only appear in first consonant mutations
*** mainly when non-syllabic, ie in diphtongs - "w" is also pronounced /w/ when followed by another vowel
These roughly correspond to the Lysene use of zhuyin characters. For more info on that, I figured it'd be easier to read if I just posted the entire thing in google docs 🙂. There will be further explanations about how these are used under the Morphology section.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qYIvxO3vBoZx7s9-76afCmOGziQKjcV4d1UY-2unD_4/edit?usp=sharing
Anyway...
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• Most Lysene roots are inspired by Welsh or Mandarin. I've finally made up my mind - hopefully - to use one character per transcription (ie. no "th":s or "sh":s - etc.). Because - after all - Lysene is all about discarding conformity. 😀
• The Lysenes got their primary wiriting system - the 唐子 Dañsù [/d̪ðaɲʔsÿ˧˥/] , from their former suzerains and benefactors across the seas, the Da Dañ (大唐 - yeh, that's the Lysene reading of "Tang"). Sound strokes (Zhuyin characters) such as these serve as a substitute for such letters when used for suffixes and grammatical particles.
• Lysene word structure is centred around the syllable. Basic word structure is, broadly (C)V(J)(N) or possibly (C/CN)JV/V/VJ(N)(V/VJ/VN/VJN), with (J) representing a semivowel/glide and (N) representing a high-sonority consonant. Most low sonority consonants (obstruents) are concentrated to the onset - called initials here.
• While the vocabulary may be inspired by Mandarin and Welsh, some of the phonology of Lysene has been influenced by Your's truly's Stockholm dialect of Swedish, and sounds he thought matched it well. 😀
• Lysene values sonority and distinguishes between "hard" vowels (a, o, u) and "soft" ones (e, i, y). This feature may have been more distinct in the past than now.
• Clusters of two obstruent consonants (all except l, m̧ , m, n, ñ and r) are avoided and separated with a glottal stop, transcribed with an apostrophe. The same goes for non-obstruent clusters, apart from semivowels - who are treated like, well... vowels. 😋
• Historical sound shifts are an important part of Lysene phonology, and may explain some odd choices in my transcription. The phonology of Lysene has been shaped by several phonological changes:

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Yoretider Lysene (≈ pre 1600 years ago)	Classical Lysene (≈ 1600-700 years ago)	Contemporary Lysene
/	→ /ɾ/	→ /ɹ̠˔/
/b	/b	↘ /ɓ/
/k/	/k/	→ /kx/
	↘ /g/, /gw/ (pre soft)	→ /ɡɣ/
/ŋ/	→ /ŋ/ ~ /ɲ/	→ /ɲ/
/f/, /w/ (as onset/initial) →	/v/ (pre hard), /f/ (pre soft) ↘
/b/	→ /p/ (pre soft)	→ /ɸ/
/h/ (as initial)	/h/	→ usually /ɮ/
/χ/	→ Ø, /θ/

Some of these phonemes appear in archaic vocabulary, notably /f/ and /χ/ (transcribed as "x") appears in several place names. The name "Argàban" which is the capital of the Lysene Commonwealth, is an example of this (as well the very rare use of "decorative" hanzi: 𠢿). The name vaguely reminds people of a Classical Lysene word, "arèg" 力 meaning "chief, power or guide/guidance" and "ban", a native word for "place" that's oddly usually written with the radical for "field" (田), giving it connotations like "a flat place" or "a place of farming", etc. Connotations are very important in Lysene and often regarded more highly than "factual" meanings.

Morphology

In line with it's fondness of ambiguity, Lysene has only two fundamental word classes:

• 詞實 Queir şéi Content Words, written in 唐子 Dañ'sù - hanzi.
• 詞虛, Queir ļýweþ '"Function Words" (also meaning "False words") - the rest, written in 笔音 Beisáen - zhuyin letters. They are free in variation in regards to tone (which I hope can provide opportunities for connotations).
• These Zhuyin letters are used in a manner reminiscent of an abugida here (feel free to classify it).

Each letter represents either an initial (onset), a medial (nucleus) or a final (coda), and has an inherent vowel, which can be changed or negated by a previous or a following letter. Finals are prioritised before initials, and medials have priority before the rest. This isn't something I completely made up on my own, if I've got it right, Zhuyin already does something like this with its finals. ☺️
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• Lysene is (somewhat) tonal.

Note how the first syllable in the second part of the compound is pronounced with a rising tone to reveal a compound. That's the role mid-rising tone (transcribed with an acute, like in hanyu pinyin). The regular, unmarked tone is flat - (not "neutral") while a long vowel - transcribed with a welshy circumflex (^) - is not completely flat but rather has a minor rise and fall in the middle (˧˦˧) - a bit like an "inverse" mandarin Tone 3.
Lysene doesn't clearly differentiate between concepts like "tone", "stress" and "vowel length". I suppose the term "mora" might come to mind, but I haven't studied Japanese to any extent - so I'm not sure about that. 😊 I was inspired by my own native Swedish here. We have a falling tone of sorts (a linguist may prefer the term "pitch" though) that, IIRC, appeared as a result of certain older Germanic consonant clusters that eventually become illicit in modern Swedish (such as andn -> anden (duck), vafn -> vapen (weapon)). This is how the falling tone appeared in Lysene as well - and the introduction of Sino-Xenic vocabulary probably accelerated that process. The falling tone is thus much more likely to appear in polysyllabic words than others, to separate native (welsh-inspired) consonant clusters.
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• Lysene use of hanzi characters is - hopefully - not completely arbitrary, but not very standardised either.

I try to pick traditional or simplified variants based on whenever they seem to fit the readings or not. The Dañsu can often have several readings, and share readings and meanings between them. The use of one character or the other might instead provide a connotation of some sort. Occasionally, a hanzi may be picked for it's relation to native readings, and not to Dañ ones.
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• Two radicals have gotten themselves additional meanings though.

爻 (trigram) got the meaning "star" (爽 for Meelf, thought to be descended from the stars) and 鬯 (sacrificial wine) got the meaning "spellcraft" (magic). I felt I needed both terms associated with radical of their own, and thought both were close enough. 😀
For instance, the hanzi character for lake (湖) is not featured in Lysene (there are those with somewhat similar meanings, such as 池, though). That's because the Lysenes had a different concept of what that meant... ehr... well really, it's because because I didn't think the pronunciation clue "胡" would get featured in Lysene to any extent.
Instead, I derived one from a the Dañ reading of this character:

每

méi - meaning "each", "because of". Which was similar enough to a native word môr, meaning "lake". So the Lysene hanzi for lake became:

海

Which also just so happened to - when combined with the 土 (earth) radical, give me a character for another native word, a homophone môr - one of many words referring to a sort of burg (castle):

塰

Burg-related tems is probably the biggest mess, when it comes to readings there is - as of yet - in Lysene. 😅 Looking like this:
It seems that \"the Stellar Mer\", \"the most peaceful folk under heaven\" - to quote Lady Cairfawn below, are great at coming up with loads of terms for truly peaceful things like fortified bastions of war

• See those alternate spellings? Like I wrote earlier, a Content word cannot be written in Bei Dàin, so other characters have to be borrowed for those purposes (I believe the Japanese call this Ateji? 😮). That's where the real fun begins, and where the Lysene love of connotations, insinuations and impreciseness can come to full fruition.

In my short stories set in Lysea, one of the main character's in name is Aşèlŷn - a compound of the words for "ace" and "pond"/"lake" (the later being her given name, the former a sort of formal nickname). An official introduction to her among a Merfolk (elf) fellowship could be written something like:

力樂德ㄥ堡川杰池

àrlwyþeg càir'fawn aşèlŷn
(The Burglady Cairfawn, Aşèlŷn. Note that the family name will always come first - and the "f" there is a piece of archaic phonology to boot)
As it's among other elves, only native vocabulary is utilised. 樂 and 德 are phonetic components though, borrowed for their Dañ readings. Using zhuyin here wouldn't work according to Lysene rules since they're part of a content word.
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• But if there were passports in the Lysene commonwealth, however, her name might be spelled something like this:

力堡杰

首川湖

(read vertically – though still in left to right order, like the ogham script of the Celts ^_^ )
Which - I hope (😮?) might be rather intelligible to anyone using hanzi characters in their everyday lives, even if the pronunciation wouldn't be so clear... The Lysene Commonwealth is a complex multi-ethnic and multi-special (is that a word?) country - and hanzi characters serve a purpose in that regard. Some species - like their highly valued forebearer (neanderthal) friends can rarely to pronounce the same phonemes as merpeople due physical differences, but written communication works just fine. Aşèlŷn may get a letter from her forebearer pen-pal 天守豬 down in their home turf, Suðariki. We can tell it might mean something like "Heaven's protector boar" but how on Cacophony is that pronounced? Well.. I think it's something like... /ɡ͡bʉ̱̌ˤɳʄʌ/. In which case even zhuyin characters wouldn't be of much use.... (I went for "Gebunieoux")
(Suðarikan doesn't look like that for the sake of sheer linguistic exoticism - it's a polysynthetic language where mood and other meaning is heavily influenced by the use of breathy voice, implosives etc. 😀)

Grammar

All right - this is probably the least developed part of my language as of now... I'm sure I'm not using or understanding all the linguistic terms entirely correctly - sorry for that in advance. 😋
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• Lysene is both analytic and agglutinative (if that makes any sense?).

Affixes (in most cases: suffixes, unless two affixes interact the same content word) are primarily used for pronouns or to clarify the meaning of a content word. Since Lysene makes no fundamental distinction between content words (though some are clearly more verb-ly or noun-ly than others..), particles and word order are used as a form of conjugation and to use determine actor, patient, verb, adjective etc. Particles appearing in the beginning of a sentence can also be used to clarify tense, of which there are three: preterite, future and conditional - all represented by particles that usually come first in a sentence. Their use is not obligatory, and the fact that there is no particle to clarify a present tense hopefully adds to the subtlety and vagueness of the language.
Some particles:
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pronoun/suffix	sound stroke(s)	meaning
'e	ㄝ	1sng (I/Me)
'ea	ㄝㄚ	1pl ("We"/"Us")
'a	ㄚ	2sng ("You")
'o	ㄛ	3sng, ("They")
'oen/'oin	ㄜㄢ	3pl ("Them")
'en	ㄝㄢ	3sng/plr - inanimate/terrestrial
'wr	ㄨㄦ	2sng / 3sng, formal/plural (usually "She")
-ei	ㄟ	comparative (is like)
-ar	ㄚㄦ	action particle, usually noun -> verb (trying to be restrictive with this since I imagine it looks a bit overly logical..)
-an	ㄢ	plural
an	ㄢ	preterite
en	ㄝㄢ	future
þyn	ㄊㄩㄢ	conditional (when/if)

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If two pronouns affect the same content word, the agent usually comes first (usually results in an OVS order).
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• Lysene grammar is fluid but context-sensitive. The primary goal of Lysene is to give space to concepts that are important in Lysene culture.

"Grace" (恩典 ênyàh) is a (theoretically debated but rarely explicitly acknowledged) concept that tries to pin down what words, expressions, concepts and sentences are seen better or worse in the eyes of the literate Lysene establishment. Very briefly: words associated with nature, the arts, inconsistency, femininity, elves, vegetarianism, spirituality, witfullness or seduction have higher "grace". Words associated with homens, masculinity, rationality and logic, meat eating, monotheism, functionality and mundanity in general - have less grace. This has a big impact on the spoken and written language. Being overtly blunt or factual or idealistic is not generally speaking good for one's social standing. It could even led to allegations somewhat akin to "heresy", in the worst cases.
The term has two dimensions: one cultural and one ideological. The former affects the informal language more, the latter affect the formal/polite language.
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• Gibberish can be an important part of Lysene

ㄊㄩㄢ『ㄅㄜㄤㄟ』『ㄬㄐㄗㄚㄦ』ㄚ有 的

þỳn bòeþei ñajazâr'a ièw þè
^{COND ????-COMP ????-2sng Exist NZ}
"Your ñajazâr will be bòeþ-ish"
^{- someone in your neighbourhood hopefully not talking about your car...}
In many fellowships (social circles), various strings of Saen y daiwén 音玩演 "play sounds"* (gibberish) will gradually come to represent various expressions of emotion or connotations. This is how zhuyin letters became accepted among the Lysene establishment (who generally speaking, doesn't like the idea of phonetic writing since it seems a bit overtly rational).
Elegantly witted Gibberish can be viewed as highly culturally refined and a highly valued part of developing new vocabulary or concealing information for less witty dimwits. There's no precise way to tell what different "non-morphemes" might mean for different groups of people. Usually though, when dealing with the Lysene establishment - the higher a vowel is on the sonority scale - or the closer a consonant is to a dental or a latteral fricative - the more likely it is the string of gibberish has a positive connotation. So if talking to a Real Elf™ gibberish sounding like "ÞàeI̧êa" is likely positive, but "Cuvob" is probably negative. The opposite may apply if you're with a homan group of outlaws.
Yes - this is ridiculously cliche - but M̧awr Quelàr y Lys 大國ㄩ燈 is a lot like that. After all, for a country that bans covering table legs and wearing skirts that go below the knees in the summer because they think it will annoy prude homan monotheists - it's not much of a stretch.
^\the term can also mean "mating sound" - this is intentional double speak on behalf of the Lysenes - neat sounding gibberish is innately graceful and reveals a desirable trait in a fellow elf.)

Very sketchy: mutations

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• Lysene has initial consonant mutation that reveals modality.

All right.. this one and the point below, are probably among the least developed in my language as of yet. However... I kinda have an idea... Basically, Lysene has got two moods: Indicative and Imperative.
Indicative is used to clarify that a Content word is related to one or several preceding, one way or another, like in the title of this post. This can be substituted by using welsh markers -'r, y and yr (depending on the vowel/consonant before/after) as a genitive or possessive (no clear distinction) marker. I decided to try this out due my over reliance on genitive suffixes, which felt a bit too streamlined.
The patient and the verb in a sentence undergoes a "soft" mutation when the indicative mood appears:
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radical	"soft" mutation
c	qu
þ	d
z	þ
b	ꝑ
qu	Ø (omit)
m	v
ļ	l
ş	s
z	ʒ (/ʒ/)

Note that when some consonants mutate, so do any perceding consonants, in accordance with the rules about soft/hard vowels. It's very straightforward though (for now at least... :p), hard vowels mutate into "e", and soft vowels mutate into "a".
I decided to try this out because I used to over-rely on the suffix -ar as a sort of... er... action particle? ergative? (^MOM?) to transform nouns into verbs - not a bad idea by itself (blurs the line between nouns and verbs), but it felt streamlined and logical- ie. like the sort of thing I sought to avoid.
The other, less common mood, is the Imperative mood, which is is.. perhaps a bad term for what it does (not that I'm sure the name itself matters..).
Imperative can be, but is not most commonly used to issue commands. It's the polite way of asking a question (ie. requesting an answer from someone) or "suggesting" a course of action (whatever extent of freedom of choice involved for the subject in the "suggestion" would usually not be clarified 😀).
It's important to remember that Lysenes don't really have the concept of "fact" in the same way some modern people. If your teacher tells you something, in the imperative mood, like:

有在人ㄠ骨頭中的

ièw sai ḑynolaw cw yn y ꝑen þè
^{"exist" in our\}) ^{human/IMP-PLR bone GEN/POSS head NZ
\}likely "our" because it's a native reading - the Dañ reading would be "ren")
Then the point probably isn't whenever the claim "humans have bones in their brain" is a literal statement of "fact" or not, that's kind of irrelevant. The point is that you are hereby requested to act as if that were the case. Your teacher is likely signalling that if you want good grades, this is what you should write in your exam. 😀
Keep in mind, 大國ㄩ燈 is not a "free country" where you can go around and say whatever you want simply because you believe it's the "Truth™". The Lysene state has an entire chancery that comes up with "Truthwrits" (propaganda) when faced with any sort of potentially difficult question. The fact that the Dañsu script and many sages of dharmic philosophy have been homans is circumvented by declaring our friends over in Great Dañ to be descendants of the dragons, so they don't count. A person's dragon heritage is supposedly determined by the colour of their ear wax.
Anyway. As seen above, the Imperative mood causes a number of consonants to undergo a sort of retroflex mutation:
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radical	"retroflex" mutation
n	ņ (/ɳ/)
d	ḑ (/ɖ/)
þ	t (/ʈ/)
r	ŗ (/ɻ/)
l	ɫ (/ɭ/)
ş	x (/χ/)
z	z̧ (/ʐ/)

Eh.. Okay, so I've realised I might not really know how to properly utilise mutations. I don't know if the idea of a retroflex mutation even makes sense for proper linguists (I just happen to like those sounds, and didn't want to rip of welsh completely). But I have an idea, at least. ☺️
Moving on to another not-very well developed idea I have for Lysene:

• Lysene is an S-fluid language, and this forms the basis of Lysene word order.

I wanted to form word order on the basis of transitivity and ergativity rather than verb, subject object etc. An agent in the ergative case would be put in the middle of a sentence, hopefully not requiring me to invent another affix.
But - likely because I'm a bland indo-european who can't really gasp this, in practice, I usually default to OSV for transitive verbs and VSO in other cases - unless the agent in a transitive verb doesn't seem to be doing something on her own. In which case the "accusative" case should be used - usually meaning just staying VSO.
An agent in the ergative case would also be head-initial, in contrast to the normally head-final word order of Lysene. That's why the compound in the title reads "seren'ꝑéin", not "ꝑèin'séren". The ergative case is more graceful than the accusative case. It's usually not polite to speak of others as accusatives, unless the context obviously makes it acceptable to refer to someone's condition or action as involuntary ("the fair elf princess is revoltingly beset by vile blue-eyed homan beasts" - or something.. 😋)
Last but not least:

• Lysene has grammatical gender

Gah... not a fan of this rather useless feature of my own native language (Swedish has common and neuter, resulting in things like stolen = the "chair", borden = "tables"👍). But here I am. At least it's not very "rational" or streamlining, so I suppose it fits Lysene.
Lysene has two grammatical genders: Serene and Terrestrial (so sorry for stealing the last one from David J. Peterson). They have to do with the idea that Merfolk descended from the stars. Serene has higher grace than Terrestial. Serene started of as a sort of animate classifier - developed into a sort of common gender, and has started to diverge into a feminine gender of sorts - perhaps a "feminine-common gender". Whereas Terrestrial started of as an inanimate classifier, turned into a sort of neuter gender - and has gradually been assigned words of lesser "grace" and such.
Gender is more flexible than in.. well, at least Swedish or German.. Misgendering words can - for instance - be a not-so subtle way of showing contempt:

ㄩ人ㄢ

Y renan
^{GEN/S-POSS Human-PL}
"of humanity"

ㄧㄦ人ㄢ

Ir renan
^{GEN/T-POSS Human-PL}
"of (the) humanerie" (as in "Jaquerie" - not sure if anglos are familiar that term... 🤗 )
It doesn't have to be contemptuous though - the exact intentions of misgendering a noun-like content word will vary from context to context. A trend involving say, tables (a terrestial word) that has something with homans to do could be described like this as well.

Conclusion

I'm sure this post is way too long. Sorry. I tried shortening it. 😺 Hope any of you folks found it interesting, at least. Any feedback would be welcome!