Object incorporation

From The Toaq Wiki

Object incorporation is when an object forms a unit with the verb and it moves to be with a verb. This results in VOS word order.

Determiners and content clauses lose their original tone and gain the hiatus tone tone. Nouns work a bit differently; see examples below.

Examples

Haqbaı báq tuze
cook 1s gnr soup
"I cook soup."
Haqbaı bâq tuze
cook gnr soup 1s
"I soup-cook."

As you can see, the object, báq tuze gets moved to the left to be with the verb, haqbaı. As a result of this new reördering, báq's rising tone gets changed to hiatus tone to make sure that it doesn't mean:

Haqbaı báq tuze
cook gnr soup 1s
"Soup-kind cooks me."

I hope we're not having some sort of soup revolution!

The same happens with pronouns.

Maı súq
love 1s 2s
"I love you."
Maı sûq
love 2s 1s
"I love-you."

Nouns work a bit differently. Instead of directly gaining hiatus tone, they get before them.

Cho káto
like 1s cat
"I like the cat."
Cho kato
like the cat 1s
"I like-the-cat."

This is to avoid making an adjunct (adverb or preposition).

Cho kâto
like cat 1s
"Like cat I."

We're not trying to use kato as a preposition (because it doesn't make any sense), so is used.