Toaq, But Easy, at Least in the Beginning
(Hıo ka!) Hello and welcome to Toaq, But Easy, at Least in the Beginning, a really fast-paced “textbook” (if you can call it that). (Mı Mıao jí.) I am Mıao (Moon). We’ve got three lessons and it’s unlikely to get anything else done.
1 - Sá paı nıq! - A new friend!
Mıao: Jadı. Mı Mıao jí da. Chua hí súq móq*?
Nuaq: Jadı. Mı Nuaq jí da.
Mıao: Chuq súq hí móq?
Nuaq: Chuq jí shámu da.
* Note that q is pronounced as the “ng” /ŋ/ sound in “sing” /sɪŋ/.
English
Moon: Hi. I’m Moon. What’s your name?Night: Hi. I’m Night.
Moon: What are you eating?
Night: I am eating an apple.
Vocabulary
| chua | ◌ is the name of ◌ |
| chuq | ◌ eats ◌ |
| foa | ◌ feels ◌ |
| hí | which / what |
| jadı | hi |
| jí | I/me |
| máo | also |
| mı X | ◌ is called X |
| shamu | ◌ is an apple |
| súq | you (singular) |
1.1 - Tones
The falling tone, which isn’t marked by any diacritic, is generally used for verbs. However, as you can see, it is also used for some other things, for example the interjection jadı. The rising tone 
is used for nouns, pronouns, and determiners (more on that later).
1.2 - Puzzled?
The above is not quite the full picture. Many of the words above which would be nouns in English are actually verbs in Toaq; in fact Toaq doesn’t really have “nouns” the way English does. You may have noticed that the definitions of the aforementioned verbs all contain slots (represented by “◌”). You fill in the slots of a verb to form a sentence. It’s kinda like piecing together a puzzle!
To form a “noun” with which to fill in the slots of a verb, you take a verb and use the rising tone on it:
- shamu = “◌ is an apple”
- shámu = “the apple”
If a verb has multiple slots such as chuq (◌ eats ◌), the noun form represents the first slot, thus:
- chúq = the eater (and not “the food” nor “the act of eating”)
1.3 - Speech acts
Speech acts (also known as “illocutions”) mark the end of the sentence and tell the recipient the purpose of the sentence. In this lesson, you are introduced to two:
- da - declarative: used for statements.
- móq - interrogative: used for asking questions
As of Toaq Delta, da and móq are no longer “required” are the ends of sentences; they can be implied, but something is still required to mark the boundary between sentences. You will be introduced to another way to separate sentences in the next lesson.
1.4 - Mı
Mı is prefixed before the names of things and people (and others), i.e. proper nouns.
- Chuq mí Mıao da. = “Moon eats.”
For those whose names are more than one word, you can use mímo ... teo, e.g. mímo Davıd J. Peterson teo or my full name, (deep breath) mímo Míao ꝡë Shoaı’aıpakato hóa rú ꝡë Rıofa hóa Nîe Séoq Gêa teo ... heh.
1.5 - Ma
Ma is used to ask yes-or-no questions.
- Ma mı Mıao súq móq? = “Are you Moon?”
2 - O jıbo! - Oh my!
Zıetao mí Mıao fóto.
Mıao: Pu tao súq hí?!
Nuaq: Haha! Pu toe jí kíaq bụqbuaı po kúne jıbo tî sóaq!
Mıao: ...
…
Nuaq: Hóı mí Mıao, ꝡa naı noaq jí kúe ꝡë kaı súq hóa.
Mıao: Details|English|Mo
English
Moon: What are you doing in this photo?!Night: Haha! I cut my dog’s very long fur in the garden.
Moon: …
…
Night: Moon, I’m reading the book which you wrote.
Moon: The book is good.
Vocabulary
| buaı | ◌ is long |
| buq- | prefix: augmentative |
| hóa | (see grammar notes) |
| hóı | vocative |
| jıa | tense: future |
| jıbo | ◌ is mine |
| kıaq | ◌ is hair/fur |
| toe | ◌ cuts ◌ |
| kue | ◌ is a book |
| naı | tense: present |
| gı | ◌ is good. |
| noaq | ◌ reads ◌ |
| po | (see grammar notes) |
| pu | tense: past |
| tao | ◌ does ◌ |
| tı | ◌ is at ◌ |
| ꝡa | (see grammar notes) |
| ꝡë | (see grammar notes) |
| zıetao | ◌ points at ◌. |
2.1 - Prepositions
Oh hey! New tone! The rising falling tone 
is used for prepositions and adverbs. Prepositions in Toaq use the second slot of a verb.
- tı = “◌ is at ◌”
- Tı jí sóaq. = “I’m at the garden.”
- Chuq jí shámu tî sóaq. = “I eat the apple in the garden.”
2.2 - Tense
Toaq has words for tense, but unlike in English, they’re not mandatory.
| pu | past |
| naı | now |
| jıa | future |
- Pu chuq jí saıram. = “I ate saıram.”
2.3 - Adjectives
Adjectives come after the nouns they modify, similar to Spanish. Only the first word of a noun phrase gets the tone though, so adjectives get a 
tone like verbs.
- kúe gı = “good book” (literally “book good”)
2.4 - Possession
Possessive words come after the nouns they modify. Compare “X of Y” (rather than “Y’s X”) for English.
To make possessive forms of pronouns, add the suffix -bo.
- kúne jıbo = “my dog” (“the dog of me”)
- kúne suqbo = “your dog” (“the dog of you”)
To make nouns possessive, use po.
- kúne po mí Nuaq = “Night’s dog” (“the dog of Night”)
- Po mí Nuaq kúne da = “The dog belongs to Night.”
2.5 - Hóı over there!
The word hóı is used for getting someone’s attention when saying their name to avoid potential confusion.
- Jadı mí Mıao ❌
- Jadı hóı mí Mıao ✅
2.6 - Ꝡha?
Ꝡhat’s this funny letter? The letter Ꝡ ꝡ can be pronounced as “w” /w/ or “y” /j/ depending on the previous vowel. It is pronounced as /w/ if the previous vowel was ı or e and /j/ if the previous vowel was o or u. This is due to the fact that [ij] and [uw] are difficult to hear. Since it is not easily typed, it may be substituted with v or vy. Poor Ꝡ.
2.7 - Ꝡa?
Ꝡa is a (sometimes) word for marking the start of a new sentence. The reason it is used in Hóı mí Mıao, ꝡa naı noaq jí kúe ꝡë kaı súq hóa is to keep the “Hey Mıao” part separated from the “I’m reading your book” part of the sentence. Ꝡa, along with its friends whom we will met later, are not required if the previous sentence ended with an speech act. Likewise, if you wish to elide da or móq, you should start your next sentence with ꝡa as in Cho jí ní. Ꝡa gı ní (da). (“I like this. This is good.”). You should see a mix of both as this series goes on.
2.8 - Prefixes
Toaq has a lot of prefixes which can change the meaning of words. In this lesson, you are introduced to the suffix buq-, the augmentative, expressing greater intensity. For example, a bụqbuaı can mean “super long”.
The last prefix of a word is is always marked with an underdot and pronounced with a glottal stop (the middle sound in “uh-oh”). If you are unable to type the underdot, it is acceptable to use a hyphen after the last prefix instead. For example, in the word buqmụbuaı, there are two prefixes, buq- and Template:Mu-, and since Template:Mu- is the last prefix, it is marked with an underdot and pronounced with a glottal stop in the middle /muʔu/
2.9 - . . . with a Side of a Bo’ohw’o’wo’er
Our next tone, the low glottal tone 
, marks words which start subordinate clauses (like a sentence within a sentence). You will see it in action in the section below as well as the next lesson.
2.10 - Relative clauses
A relative clause is a clause that modifies a noun. An example from the dialogue is “the book which you wrote”. The “which you wrote” part is the relative clause.
Ꝡë marks the start of a relative clause and hóa is the resumptive pronoun. What’s that? Well, we need a way to know what the relative clause is referring to. There is a huge difference between “the book which I wrote” and “the book which wrote me”. I wonder what the latter would look like.
| kúe | ꝡë | kaı | jí | hóa |
| book | which | write | I | hóa |
| “the book which I wrote” | ||||
Compare that to:
| kúe | ꝡë | kaı | hóa | jí |
| book | which | write | hóa | I |
| “the book which wrote me” | ||||
3 - Shao - Shout Your Wishes
Mıao: Shao jí lä chuq já sáıram, ꝡë pu baı jí hóa da.
Nuaq: Haı ... chuq jí sáıram. Ꝡa pu bu dua jí, ꝡä shao chuq máo súq máq! Kushe!
Mıao: Oro.... Dua súq, ꝡä maı jí báq saıram, rú, ꝡä pu baı jí sá saıram!
Nuaq: Jıa haqbaı jí báq saıram zûo pó súq. Kéo naı chuqkuaı úmo, tıu fa úmo sá chuqrıaq bẹsaıram ba!
Mıao: Chuqkuaı kú súq môq?
English
Moon: I want to eat the saıram I made.Night: I ... already ate the saıram. I didn’t know that you also wanted to eat it! Sorry!
Moon: Ugh.... You knew that I love saıram and that I made some saıram!
Night: I’ll make saıram for you, but we’re both hungry now, so let’s go to a saıram restaurant!
Moon: YOU’RE hungry??
3.1 - Content clauses
Ꝡä is used to mark the beginning of content clauses. It is similar to how “that” is used in English.
- Dua súq, ꝡä maı jí báq saıram da. = You know that I love saıram.
3.2 - Self-termination
Of course, these subordinate clauses must end somewhere, right? As such, subordinate clauses automatically terminate when they encounter a word that cannot be a part of it.
For example, in the sentence below, the underlined relative clause terminates after the hóa because the verb maı has two slots which are filled by súq and hóa. This means that ní fills the second slot of the main verb chuq and not the non-existent third slot of maı.
- Chuq káto, ꝡë maı súq hóa, ní da. = The cat, whom you love, eats this.
The cat [who wrote this] thinks [that self-termination of subordinate clauses is very cool].
3.3 - Determiners
Using to make nouns is nice and all, but it leaves is severely limited. How do we express “an/some apple”? “the apple?” “all apples”? We use determiners! (Those aforementioned words are all determiners).
|
|
if unbound, “the X” (to be explained in a future lesson) |
| sá X | a/some X |
| tú X | each X |
| túq X | all X |
| sía X | no X |
| ní X | this/that X |
| báq X | X in general, X-kınd (to be explained in a future lesson) |
| hí X | what/which X |
| hú X | the (previously mentioned) X |
| ké X | the (previously unmentioned) X |