Toaq, But Easy, at Least in the Beginning

󱛆󱚹󱛍󱛃 󱛄󱚺 󱛖 (Hıo ka!) Hello and welcome to Toaq, But Easy, at Least in the Beginning. 󱚰󱚹 󱚰󱚹󱛍󱚺󱛎󱛃 󱚾󱛊󱚹 󱛕 (Mı Mıao jí.) I am Mıao (Moon). We’ve got two 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 da?

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 ◌
foa	◌ feels ◌
hí	which / what
jadı	hi
jí	I/me
máo	also
mı X	the one 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 jadı. The rising tone is used for nouns, pronouns, and determiners.

1.2 - Word order

The most simplest word order in Toaq is VSO — verb - subject - object. Notice how Chuq jí shámu literally translates to “Eat I apple”.

1.3 - Speech acts

Speech acts (also known as “illocutions”) tell the recepient 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, speech acts are no longer “required”, but something is still required to separate the sentences. You will be introduced to that in a future 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!

Mıao: Tao súq hí tî ní foto?!

Nuaq: Haha! Pu kıaqtoe jí kíaq jaq buaı po bụaqkúne jıbo!

Mıao: ...

…

Nuaq: Hóı mí Mıao ꝡa naı noaq jí kúe ꝡë kaı súq hóa.

Mıao: Á? O. Neaochıaqca ní…

English

Moon: What are you doing in this photo?!

Night: Haha! I cut my huge dog’s very long fur.

Moon: …

…

Night: Moon, I’m reading the book which you wrote.

Moon: Huh? Oh. That’s embarrassing…

Vocabulary

buaı	◌ is long
buq-	prefix: augmentative
hóa	(see grammar notes)
hóı	vocative
jıa	◌ happens in the future
jıbo	◌ is mine
kıaq	◌ is hair/fur
kıaqtoe	◌ cuts the hair/fur of ◌
kue	◌ is a book
naı	◌ happens now
neaochıaqca	◌ is embarrassing to ◌
noaq	◌ reads ◌
po	of
pu	◌ happened in the past
tao	◌ does ◌
tı	◌ is at ◌
ꝡa	(see grammar notes)
ꝡë	(see grammar notes)

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 búajıo. = “I’m at the house.”
• Kuq jí tî búajıo. = “I talk at the house”

2.2 - Tense

Toaq has words for tense, but unlike in English, they’re not mandatory.

pu	past
naı	now
jıa	future

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.

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 other things possessive, use po.

• kúne po mı Nuaq = “Night’s dog” (“the dog of 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 mı Mıao ❌
• Jadı hóı mı 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. 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 súq hóa is to keep things separated. 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 can start your 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 bụqkato can be a “huge cat”.

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.

2.7 - Relative clauses

If you don’t know what a relative clause is, 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 something for you, but we’re both hungry, so let’s go to a saıram restaurant!

Moon: You’re hungry?

3.1 - ... with a Side of a Bo’ohw’o’wo’er

Ꝡä is used to mark 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.