This conlang is extremely far from anything resembling completion. It also may seem to be pretty damn simplistic to any semi-experienced conlangers, especially in terms of the phonology. The reason is that it's intended to be as easily accessible to English speakers as possible, (while still seeming suitably foreign,) so most of the sounds appear in English and are represented in this language by the letters that represent them in English. It's also because I'm not terribly knowledgeable about phonetics and I'm bad at making non-English sounds, and I would like to be able to pronounce my own language.

This is a language spoken primarily by dragons. In terms of phonetics, this means I avoided all rounded sounds¹ since I imagine dragons would have a hard time curling their lips like that. It also means I probably should have included a ton of glottal sounds² instead of none, given that dragons have those really long throats. In terms of semantics, this will probably mean a lot of metaphor systems relating to flight, although I haven't gotten around to making a lot of those just yet.

This language does not yet have a name. It may never have a name. It's mostly a throwaway thing. But we'll see.

This language was created a priori; that is, I went with whatever came to my head first with little to no inspiration from specific real-world languages.

This scrap of a grammar will have a ton of notes all over it for anyone who may be interested but may not know what the hell I'm talking about when I say, for instance, "voiced labial stop.³"

¹For those not familiar with linguistic terminology, that means sounds where the lips curl into an O-like shape, e.g. W, Latin O, Latin U, etc.
²I.e. sounds pronounced in the throat. As far as I'm aware, English has only H.
³"Voiced" means vocal cords are vibrating. "Labial" means it's pronounced with the lips. "Stop" means all airflow is obstructed for a brief moment. A "voiced labial stop" is essentially the B sound in English.

Phonology

I'm presenting the sounds of this language in two ways: as charts of vowels and consonants, and using IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet). As I said, I'm far from an expert on phonetics, so the following may or may not be entirely consistent with either itself or what I have in mind. Just... y'know, realize that.

Consonants
             Labial   Dental   Alveolar   Palatal     Velar
Approximate                    l, r       y
Fricative             s, z     sh, zh                 h
Affricative               ch, j
Nasal        m                 n
Stops                          t, d                   k, g

Consonant chart explained:

Labial sounds are pronounced with the lips, dental sounds with the teeth, alveolar sounds with the tongue against the ridge just behind the teeth, palatal sounds with the tongue touching or coming close to the roof of the mouth, and velar sounds with the tongue against the back of the mouth.

Stops block airflow completely for a time, nasals block airflow through the mouth but not through the nose, fricatives constrict airflow to produce a kind of hissing sound, and approximates only restrict airflow enough to slightly change the sound.

Affricatives are basically two sounds, a stop and a fricative immediately following one another. ('Ch' is 't' followed by 'sh,' 'j' is 'd' followed by 'zh.')

Most of these sounds should be pronounced exactly as they would be in English. H is a weird one, though; it's pronounced further forward in the mouth. Think Scottish English "loch."

English speakers might also be confused by 'zh.' It's exactly the same as 'sh,' just with the vocal cords vibrating. The sound does appear in English, although we're usually not aware of it. Think "vision."


Vowels
      Front      Back
High   í     i
             e
       é
Low    á           a

Vowel chart explained:

This is where I'm shakiest with my understanding of phonetics, so this chart should be taken with a massive helping of salt.

Front vs Back refers to how far backwards the tongue is compressed in the mouth. High vs Low refers to the height of the tongue in the mouth relative to the roof of the mouth. Since the jaw typically follows the tongue, opening more as the tongue lowers and closing as it rises, these are sometimes called Closed and Open instead.

Here, 'e' is the weird one. It should be pronounced like the a in above, or like the expression of confusion or contemplation, "Uhhh..." It might have made more sense to represent this sound with u, but I think English speakers are used to reading the u of other languages as it's pronounced in, say, "stupid." And you'll remember that there are no rounded sounds in this language. In light of that fact, I opted for e instead. An e with an accent, é, represents the more typical e sound in English, i.e. pet, set, bet.

Other English equivalences are shown along with the IPA:

l   /l/   leaf
r   /ɹ/   borrow
y   /j/   yes
s   /s/   sassafras
z   /z/   zoos
sh  /ʃ/   shoe
zh  /ʒ/   vision
h   /x/   loch (Scottish English)
ch  /t͡ʃ/   church
j   /d͡ʒ/   judge
m   /m/   mime
n   /n/   nun
t   /t/   stop
d   /d/   dad
k   /k/   kick
g   /ɡ/   gag
i   /ɪ/   sit¹
í   /i/   sea
e   /ə/   above
é   /ɛ/   bet
a   /ɑ/   father
á   /æ/   cat

¹This sound will often appear at the end of words, which will probably be awkward for most English speakers because English doesn't allow this sound at the ends of words. Just keep that in mind.

I don't pretend to know IPA, by the way. I got this list by going to the Wikipedia article about it (link in the description) and clicking through all the sound files there until I found the sound I was looking for, then copy-pasting the symbol.

A few final notes about the phonology:
1.  The syllable structure is (C)V(C). That is, every syllable contains a single vowel which may or may not have a single consonant preceding it and/or a single consonant following it.
2. Diphthongs (two vowels placed in succession and blended into a single sound, e.g. Latin's 'ae,') do not exist in this language. Vowels always appear independently and are offset by consonants.
3. Stress always falls on the second-to-last syllable of a word.
4. This language is syllable timed. That is, every syllable lasts for about the same length of time. Contrast with English, which is stress timed; syllables are lengthened or shortened to keep the time between stresses relatively consistent.

Morphology

Morphology is the ways in which words change sound to alter the way they function in a sentence. In English, for instance, appending -s to a noun to mark it as plural is part of the morphology, as is appending -ed to a verb to mark simple past tense, or -ing to mark a participle.

From here on out, this language is sorely lacking and needs a ton of work.

Here is as good a time as any to talk about glosses. When I provide examples from the language, they'll appear like this:

Original language
Gloss
Free translation

The gloss takes each word, in order, and separates it into its various morphemes (i.e. individual morphological units. -s in English is a morpheme, as are -ed and -ing, and so are the individual words to which they are appended.) Morphemes will be separated by a hyphen. (The gloss for, say, 'trees' would be [tree-PL].) If more than one word is needed to describe a single morpheme, each will be separated by a period. (To be a little more verbose with our gloss of 'trees,' [plant.made.of.wood-PL].)


Nouns

Plurality is marked by reduplicating the final two syllables of the word using a hyphen.

dénéyi-néyi
small.flier-PL
birds

To generalize a noun X to "the set of all X's," append the prefix a- (or am- if the noun begins with a vowel). Nouns so marked function as mass nouns¹ and cannot be pluralized.

ajezri
MASS.N-reptile.child
all dragon children

¹For those who don't know, count nouns are nouns that you can count, e.g. "one bird," "two towers." Mass nouns are nouns that name a substance, e.g. "water," "air." These can't be counted except by units of measurement that can be counted: "four cups of water," "a can of air."

Verbs

Person and number are not marked.

The root form of a verb marks simple present indicative.

Zánad dénéyi-néyi.
sing.SIMP.PRES.IND small.flier-PL
The birds sing.

To mark imperfective or progressive, auxiliary words are used. I just haven't come up with them yet.


No morphology yet for the other parts of speech.

Derivational Morphology

That is, morphology used to alter the meaning of a word, and often its part of speech, not just its function in a sentence. English re- (develop to redevelop,) -ness (happy to happiness,) and -y (crap to crappy) are all bits of derivational morphology.

This language mainly uses infixes for its derivational morphology. Infixes are like prefixes or suffixes, but they are added to the interior of a word rather than the beginning or end, and thus can almost entirely change the way the word looks. Which is why I like 'em so much.


Nouns

The diminutive form of a noun is created by placing the infix -ni- after the first vowel. When preceding an approximate consonant, the infix often becomes -né- instead.

déyi » dénéyi
flier » DIM.flier
creature that flies / bird of prey » songbird (lit. 'small flier')

The augmentative form of a noun is created by placing the infix -da- after the first vowel.

déyi » dédayi
flier » AUG.flier
creature that flies / bird of prey » dragon (lit. 'great flier')

The superlative form of a noun is formed by placing the infix -déda- after the first vowel.

déyi » dédédayi
flier » SUP.flier
creature that flies / bird of prey » celestial body (e.g. sun, moon; lit. 'greatest flier')

Compounds are formed by placing the words in the order opposite how they would appear in a noun phrase (i.e. head final, not head initial; see the section on syntax below,) the final consonant-vowel cluster and any consonant after it is removed from the first word, and what remains is concatenated.

zhayeni jezri » zhayejezri
male reptile.child » reptile.son
male dragon child » dragon's son

Verbs

To augment a verb, place the infix -ad- after the first consonant. This form indicates a stronger or more emphatic form of the action described by the verb.

zánad » zánadad
sing » AUG.sing
sing / hum / coo » chant / sing with great depth of feeling

Again, no derivational morphology for other parts of speech yet.

Syntax

The basic sentence order in this language is Verb Subject Object. (English, for comparison, is Subject Verb Object, and Latin tends to be Subject Object Verb.)

Noun phrases are for the most part head-initial. (I.e. descriptors follow what they describe. English tends to be head-final; adjectives go before nouns.) The only exception is numbers, which are placed before the noun they modify rather than after. So, noun phrases are arranged in this way:
[numbers] Noun [adjectives / volition / other descriptors] [subordinate clauses]

Volition is indicated by special adjectives; if the subject of the sentence desired the action of the sentence, a special adjective is appended to the subject. If any object desired the action, an adjective is appended to that object as well.

Benefactive (i.e. the action was to the benefit of something or someone) is also handled with special adjectives. If a benefactive adjective is present without a volitional adjective, volition is implied. To indicate benefactive without volition, (i.e. the subject/object didn't intend the action but it worked out in their favor anyway,) a negated volitional adjective must also be included.

I have yet to come up with any of these volitional or benefactive adjectives, though. It's just a nifty idea for now.

To indicate the union of two subjects or objects (as with the English conjunction 'and,') simply place the two nouns together without any auxiliary words.

jezri nádel
reptile.child mammal.child
the dragon and the human child

I'm skipping over the section on semantics, which mainly includes metaphor systems, simply because it's so incomplete and I don't feel like taking the time to explain what little there is.

Lexicon

Behold the dozen or so words that currently comprise the vocabulary of this language! Yeah, this thing needs some work.

dédayi (n) Dragon. Literally 'great flier.'
dédédayi (n) Celestial body (sun or moon). Literally 'greatest flier.'
dénéyi (n) Small or little flier (i.e. songbird).
déyi (n) A being / creature that flies. Loosely, a bird, typically a bird of prey.
énádel (n) 1. Girl; female child of any species that gives live birth. 2. Daughter (of a species that gives live birth). 3. (Colloquial) An endearing term for one's female love interest; comparable to English 'baby' or 'dear,' but less cliché and without the condescending overtones.
éni (n) 1. Female of a sapient species (dragons, humans). 2. (Archaic) Wise woman; female spiritual and social leader.
éjezri (n) Female child of any egg-laying species.
jenizri (n) Very small child or infant; newborn offspring of any egg-laying species.
jezri (n) Child; the offspring of any egg-laying species (chiefly dragons, but also birds, other reptiles, etc).
nádel (n) Child; the offspring of any species that gives live birth (chiefly humans, but also other mammals).
nánidel (n) Very small child or infant; newborn offspring of any species that gives live birth.
zánad (v) Sing, hum, coo.
zánadad (v) Chant; sing loudly or with great depth of feeling.
zhanáyeni (n) 1. Apprentice, learner, beginner. Endearing when appropriately applied. In most cases, condescending and insulting when applied to a professional, but can be used inoffensively when providing constructive criticism. 2. An endearing term for a young warrior. Condescending when applied to a veteran.
zhayejezri (n) 1. Boy; male child of any egg-laying species. 2. Son (of an egg-laying species).
zhayenádel (n) 1. Boy; male child of any species that gives live birth. 2. Son (of a species that gives live birth).
zhayeni (n) 1. Male of a sapient species (dragons, humans). 2. (Less commonly) Warrior, soldier, fighter, combatant, contestant.


This here is where example texts (essays, letters, speeches, whatever) would appear if I had any written. But I don't. So that's it for now.