Verb

From The Toaq Wiki

this is currently at odds with Verb form, noun form

In Toaq, a verb (jeotoame) is any phrase with the same grammatical behavior as a single atomic verb.

A verb is either:

  • A single-word atomic verb. (See that article for why "young" is a verb in Toaq.)
    • Nıo nháo da. "They are young."
  • An analytic verb, consisting of more than one word:
    • An object-incorporating verb (po, mea, jeı) followed its incorporated object noun phrase.
      • Mea chíeme nháo da. "They are among the class."
    • A name verb (mı, mıru, mımo) followed by a name phrase (mımo has to be closed by ga)
      • Mı Sara nháo da. "They are Sara."
    • A free relative construction: ꝡe …, where the phrase's resumptive pronoun hóa is the argument of the verb.
      • Ꝡe leı sea hóa, nháo da. "They are someone who rarely rests."
    • A serial verb, made by juxtaposing a non-serial verb with another verb.
      • Pỏ súq ga chỉetuache nháo da. "They are your teacher".
        • The common pỏ X ga Y "is X's Y" construction is a serial verb of pỏ X ga ("is X's") and Y. The ga is mandatory in this position, otherwise súq chỉetuache would be interpreted as a serial verb conjugated in rising tone.

When tone-conjugating a verb, only the falling tone on the first word changes to the new tone:

rising tone rising-creaky tone falling tone rising-falling tone
nío
the young one
nïo hóa cy
…who is young
nỉo
is young
nîo (súq) cy
that (you) are young
méa chíeme
the one among the class
mëa chíeme hóa cy
…who is among the class
mẻa chíeme
is among the class
mêa chíeme (súq) cy
that (you) are among the class
mí Sảra
(the) Sara
mï Sảra hóa cy
…who is Sara
mỉ Sảra
is Sara
mî Sảra (súq) cy
that (you) are Sara
lú sẻa hóa dãqleı ky
the one who rarely rests
lü sẻa hóa dãqleı ky hóa cy
…who is someone who rarely rests[1]
lủ sẻa hóa dãqleı ky
is someone who rarely rests
lû sẻa hóa dãqleı ky (súq) cy
that (you) are someone who rarely rests[2]
jóaı kảqshıa
the glasses-seeker
jöaı kảqshıa hóa cy
…who seeks glasses
jỏaı kảqshıa
seeks glasses
jôaı kảqshıa (súq) cy
that (you) seek glasses
  1. It's simpler to just say sëa hóa dãqleı, so this one isn't very useful.
  2. Here, too, it's simpler to just say: sêa súq dãqleı.