Root

A root is a Toaq verb that is not etymologically a compound of two other Toaq words.

For example:

• Any single-syllable verb like nao "water" or heq "contain" is necessarily a root.
• The word kune "dog" is a root: etymologically, it's from Proto-Indo-European, rather than being a compound of ku + ne.
• The word kudote "chat" is a root. It was generated randomly by a program.
• The word juaodue "legal" is not a root, because it's a compound of Toaq juao "law" + due "correct".

Single-syllable verbs are called monosyllabic roots or core roots. Longer roots like kune are called layer 2 roots (mostly by Hoemai).

In early Toaq, there were only single-syllable roots, leading to some misuse of the word "root" to mean "monosyllabic root".

Which concepts deserve roots?

A quote from Hoemai:

Also, I would encourage people to coin more CV(q)CV(q) roots. If a good two-part compound exists for a concept, great, but as soon as you have three or more components, that probably means a new root is warranted. Not that long words are generally bad, but a word like guaqgıaıchuo doesn't need to exist when there's practically unlimited root space.

Which concepts deserve monosyllables?

There is an official "blacklist" of concepts that should not have monosyllabic roots:

Core Root Blacklist

• ⛔️ cultures, languages, countries
• ⛔️ animals, plants
• ⛔️ organs
• ⛔️ articles of clothing
• ⛔️ materials

There are some grandfathered-in exceptions to this list (like chea "hat", req "human", shıa "glass").