FAQ: Difference between revisions
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=== How many tones are there? === | === How many tones are there? === | ||
✅ 4 tones. | ✅ 4 tones. | ||
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=== How are roots created? === | === How are roots created? === | ||
✅ A priori, based on my intuition. I usually have to think long and hard and feel my options out before I decide what root to assign to a concept. | ✅ The author described the process as: "A priori, based on my intuition. I usually have to think long and hard and feel my options out before I decide what root to assign to a concept." | ||
Recently, many words are created by community consensus on [[Toadua]], including root words, using a variety of methods. | |||
=== Where can I find a dictionary? === | === Where can I find a dictionary? === | ||
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=== X seems to be missing from the language. Why does Toaq not have X? === | === X seems to be missing from the language. Why does Toaq not have X? === | ||
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* ✅ toashuaq: https://t.me/joinchat/CWpuWUvrHSdLL3JneDjp9Q | * ✅ toashuaq: https://t.me/joinchat/CWpuWUvrHSdLL3JneDjp9Q | ||
* ✅ off-topic: https://t.me/joinchat/CWpuWVJC8_-EMukIAjMfYQ | * ✅ off-topic: https://t.me/joinchat/CWpuWVJC8_-EMukIAjMfYQ | ||
=== What's the terminator of X? === | === What's the terminator of X? === | ||
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=== Is there an automatic interpreter of Toaq? Is there a translator from Toaq to logic notation? === | === Is there an automatic interpreter of Toaq? Is there a translator from Toaq to logic notation? === | ||
✅ Indeed there is! | ✅ Indeed there is (for a slightly outdated version of Toaq called [[Toaq Gamma]])! | ||
Go to https://toaq.net/zugai/ and select logic. Note that Zugaı is still in development, so some things may not work as expected. | Go to https://toaq.net/zugai/ and select logic. Note that Zugaı is still in development, so some things may not work as expected. | ||
Revision as of 19:41, 17 February 2023
How many tones are there?
✅ 4 tones.
- See article
- Tone
What does tone X do?
✅ See the following table:
Falling tone 
|
Rising tone 
|
Glottal tone 
|
Rising-falling tone 
| |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Verb |
|
Bound variable | Adjunct | |
| Pronoun | Argument | Incorporated object | ||
| Determiner | Argument | Incorporated object | ||
| Complementizer | Speech act complement | Subclause head | Incorporated object | |
| Interjection | Interjection | Inquiry | Expression of empathy | |
| Speech act particle | Lexical tone (i.e. (da) and (dâ) are simply different lexemes) | |||
| Focus particle | Steals tone from head if possible, otherwise rising tone | |||
| Conjunction | Highest precedence | Default precedence | Second highest precedence | |
How do you pronounce X?
✅ Please refer to https://toaq.net/refgram/phonology/.
Is there a way to check whether my sentence is correct?
✅ Yes, using one of the online parsers:
- https://toaq.net/zugai/ (Gamma, in-development, may lack some features, but produces detailed output)
- https://toaq.net/peg/ (Beta, produces a simplistic tree; may accept some incorrect inputs)
- https://toaq.herokuapp.com/ (outdated)
If you're on Discord or Telegram, you can also use commands like %english %logic %structure (for Zugaı) and %miu for the outdated Mıu; more bot commands are listed here.
How do I type the tone marks/symbols/diacritics?
✅ Please see Input methods.
Where does the Toaq logo come from?
✅ It's original.
Are the Toaq logo, flag, or colors based on the transgender flag?
✅ No, it's a coincidence that they share the same colors.[1]
Is "Toaq" based on the word "tongue" or "tone"?
✅ It is not, in fact. But that's an interesting coincidence. Might be a good mnemonic.
How are roots created?
✅ The author described the process as: "A priori, based on my intuition. I usually have to think long and hard and feel my options out before I decide what root to assign to a concept."
Recently, many words are created by community consensus on Toadua, including root words, using a variety of methods.
Where can I find a dictionary?
✅ Here: http://www.toaq.org/dictionary/ and here: https://uakci.pl/toadua/. The latter is a collaborative dictionary to which everyone can contribute.
How do I answer a yes/no question in Toaq?
✅ In ascending order of verbosity and formality:
| nho | zı |
| Nu da. | Bu nu da. |
| Juna hóq da. | Sahu hóq da. |
X seems to be missing from the language. Why does Toaq not have X?
✅ Part of the philosophy behind the initial design was that I didn't want to over-engineer the language. Lojban (to name a random example) started out with a boatload of complicated rules that turned out not to be beneficial. I would rather start out with too few rules and only add extensions when it's clearly needed, avoiding clutter.
In doing so, I'm also giving the language the chance to grow organically with the help of its speakers.
Is there really a glottal stop in the ä tone?
✅ Yes.
How new/old is Toaq?
✅ The current version was published in December 2022. The very first version alpha version was published in 2013.
What's the difference between ceo and sho?
✅ sho means something undergoes a change such that it ends up satisfying the second place.
ceo says that a thing begins to be the case, which can be said of things that don't priorly exist or are the case. sho on the other hand can be said of things that already exist; they merely undergo a change that makes them become such that they now have a certain property they previously did not.
Both are appropriate in most situations.
What's the process for creating taxonomic vocabulary (animals/plants)?
✅ The process follows these steps:
- Find the scientific name of the animal or plant
- Let's use butterfly and spider as examples.
-
- Check the etymology of the name.
- For "butterfly" the order is called "Lepidoptera", for "spider" we get "Araneae"
-
- If the name is a compound, make a calque of the compound.
- This is the case for "Lepidoptera", which is put together from λεπίς (lepís, "scale") and πτερόν (pterón, "wing").
- Translating "scale wing", we arrive at the Toaq word for butterfly: tıqshoaı
-
- If the name is not a compound, follow the etymology as far back as possible, then borrow that word.*
- This is the case for "Araneae", which can be traced back to Ancient Greek ἀράχνη (arákhnē). Toaq-ifying yields arane, which is our word for spider.
What's the vowel order?
✅ A U I O E
How can I join the discord server?
✅ Use this invite link: https://discord.gg/qDqDsH9
- See article
- Discord
How can I join the Telegram groups?
✅ Use these invite links:
- ✅ general: https://t.me/joinchat/CWpuWUMl0JeW7-TdO6PnAQ
- ✅ chiejio: https://t.me/joinchat/CWpuWUPKUdAiT7KR6SiE7w
- ✅ toaq-only: https://t.me/joinchat/CWpuWUSC9pqnzPyufkQsrA
- ✅ toashuaq: https://t.me/joinchat/CWpuWUvrHSdLL3JneDjp9Q
- ✅ off-topic: https://t.me/joinchat/CWpuWVJC8_-EMukIAjMfYQ
What's the terminator of X?
✅ Unlike some other loglangs like Lojban and Loglan, modern Toaq doesn't feature any terminators at all! Instead, clauses can be closed by filling every argument, cleft structures, and connecting with a conjunction to another clause in the same scope.
Is there an automatic interpreter of Toaq? Is there a translator from Toaq to logic notation?
✅ Indeed there is (for a slightly outdated version of Toaq called Toaq Gamma)!
Go to https://toaq.net/zugai/ and select logic. Note that Zugaı is still in development, so some things may not work as expected.
- See article
- Zugaı
How do you say "I'm making some coffee" in Toaq?
☕ 404 (Baı jí báq kafe.)
What does kú ("focus") mean?
✅ Here's an explanation: https://toaqlanguage.wordpress.com/2018/06/01/on-the-logic-of-ku/
Is there a way to mark contrastive focus or emphasis?
✅ Yes, by using béı in front the word.
What's the system for referring to nationalities/languages/countries?
✅ This is the system:
Take the country's native name or the native adjective describing the nationality and borrow it. This borrowing now refers generically to anything having to do with the country or its culture.
- For example, Juqguo ("China") means "to be Chinese, to be of China, its languages or people".
- Faraqse means "French".
To refer more specifically to the country, add gua ("country").
- Juqguogua, "China".
- Faraqsegua, "France".
To refer to a language, add zu ("language").
- Faraqsezu, "the French language".
- Juqguozu is ambiguous between the many languages of China, "a Chinese language".
What are the numbers from 1 to 10?
✅ They are as follows:
| 1️⃣ | shı |
| 2️⃣ | gu |
| 3️⃣ | saq |
| 4️⃣ | jo |
| 5️⃣ | fe |
| 6️⃣ | cı |
| 7️⃣ | dıaı |
| 8️⃣ | roaı |
| 9️⃣ | neı |
| 1️⃣0️⃣ | heı |
What are the numbers from 20 to 99?
✅ They are as follows:
| 20 | = | guheı |
| 30 | = | saqheı |
| 40 | = | joheı |
| 50 | = | feheı |
| 60 | = | cıheı |
| 70 | = | dıaıheı |
| 80 | = | roaıheı |
| 90 | = | neıheı |
| 21 | = | guheı shı |
| 34 | = | saqheı jo |
| 83 | = | roaıheı saq |
What's with the ı / i without dot / dotless i?
✅ Writing ı without the dot distinguishes it more from an i that carries a tone mark, it also makes more room for an adjacent tone mark. Overall, it just makes things easier to read.
- See article
- Latin writing system
How do I do an indirect quote?
✅ Use ꝡä+predicate with ruaq or duatua for indirect assertions and duasue for indirect questions:
- Ruaq hó ꝡä bu tı hó chíejıo. = "She says [that] she isn't at school."
- Duatua hó jí ꝡä tı hó hí raı. = "He told me where he is."
- Duasue hó jí ꝡä bua jí hí raı. = "They asked me where I live."
Is there a memrise deck?
✅ There is, but it is outdated: https://www.memrise.com/course/1974691/toaq-simple-predicates-2018-06-03/
Is there a frequency list?
✅ Why yes! Look here: https://gist.github.com/lynn/c8c6f904d4e5c29a6b2533a7ac05680a
Is there a list of translated sentences?
✅ We are working on it!
Is there a subreddit?
✅ Yes: https://old.reddit.com/r/Toaq/
What's the hashtag?
✅ We're using #miToaq for now.
What are the personal pronouns?
✅ Toaq's 'pronouns' are verbs. Instead of a word for "I/me", there's a verb meaning "to be me". These are the personal reference predicates:
| me | = | jí | I, me | ||||
| you | = | súq | you | ||||
| you | = | súna | you (plural) | ||||
| they | = | nháo | they/them, he/him, she/her | ||||
| they | = | nhána | they/them (plural) | ||||
| you | + | they | = | súo | you all | ||
| me | + | you | = | úmı | we, us | ||
| me | + | they | = | íme | we, us | ||
| me | + | you | + | they | = | áma | we, us |
- See article
- Pronoun
How do you make a plural? How do you pluralize a noun?
✅ Toaq nouns are not inflected for grammatical number. Any noun can refer to one or more things. When necessary, singular and plural can be made explicit:
- To specify a singular, use nẹshı ("one") as an adjective.
- Example: jío nẹshı "the [one] building" (explicit singular)
- To specify a plural, use puq ("multiple") as an adjective.
- Example: jío puq "the [more than one] buildings" (explicit plural).
Marking number is never required. It is usually obvious (or not terribly important) whether something is one thing or more than one thing. When in doubt, read a bare noun as plural unless context suggests otherwise.
What's up with the letter q in this language? Pronunciation of q
✅ q is somewhat special and its pronunciation may not be immediately obvious. It is pronounced like English ⟨ng⟩ (IPA [ŋ]). The use of the letter Q is a nod to Rex May’s Ceqli, an international auxiliary language with loglang elements; it’s also found in natural languages such as Fijian (where it represents [ᵑɡ], to be exact).
Unlike previous versions of Toaq, q does not have any allophonic variation - that is, it is always [ŋ] - because syllables may also end with m, which needs to stay distinct.
What are the words for the days of the week and for the months?
✅ The names for the days of the week are based on the colors of the rainbow, starting with red on Monday and ending with purple on Sunday:
| Mon | kıachaq |
| Tue | naraqchaq |
| Wed | luechaq |
| Thu | rıqchaq |
| Fri | kuaochaq |
| Sat | mıochaq |
| Sun | loachaq |
The months use compounds of the number of the month + jue ("month"):
| January | shıjue |
| February | gujue |
| March | saqjue |
| April | jojue |
| May | fejue |
| June | cıjue |
| July | dıaıjue |
| August | roaıjue |
| September | neıjue |
| October | heıjue |
| November | heıshıjue |
| December | heıgujue |
What's the difference between an indirect question and a ꝡé phrase?
✅ The distinction is extremely important logically speaking, but English usually conflates the two, so many people overlook the difference. The following example illustrates the difference:
- Dua jí ꝡä chı súq hí raı. = "I know what you believe"
- Dua jí ꝡé chı súq hóa. = "I know what you believe"
Let's say that what you believe is [God exists].
- says that I know that you believe [God exists], because I know what it is that you believe
- says that I know that [God exists] is true, because I know that which you believe to be true.
Does Toaq have a flag?
✅ This is a candidate design:
References
- ↑ Quote from Hoemaı on Discord:
This comes up a lot, so maybe I should tell the whole story of how those colors came to be.
It was around 2015 while I was working on/planning my second Lojban album (which was originally meant to "just" be an EP). One of the cover designs had pink and light blue text on a black background (neon style), and it was then that I realized how much I liked that color combo. Coincidentally, it wasn't much later that I had to pick colors for Toaq, and so I picked those. This was long before I had ever seen the trans flag. So the answer to the common question "is it a coincidence that they share the same colors?" is Yes.