Hoelai

Hoelai (Toaq: mí Hỏelaı, or in Hoelai, mPi EhNoyl) is a writing system for Toaq developed by Hoemai.

Version 3

Consonant characters

Vowel characters

Diphthong characters

Shortcut vowel characters

Version 3 was published on the 31st of July 2022 on The Toaq Blog.

There are now only two possible patterns a syllable can take:

1. Consonant in the middle with vowel to the right, tone on top, and -q / -y below; or
2. Consonant in the middle with diphthong to the left and tone on top

In addition, a bare consonant no longer implies there to be an “a” there.

Since these changes would make CVV(q) and CVF syllables impossible to write as one syllable, there is a shortcut form which is a ligature of q + a vowel. (See right "Shortcut vowel characters".)

Zodiac mode

Zodiac mode turns Hoelai into a syllabary by combining consonant and vowel characters. Below, the list of characters.

The order of the finals are:

-a, -u, -ı, -o, -e, -aı, -ao, -oı, -ou, -eı, -aq, -uq, -ıq, -oq, -eq, -y

Version 2

This generation is only available as a pilot demonstration article. Since it hinges on a yet unimplemented phonology overhaul, it cannot yet be used in practice, nor has a font been made for it yet.

Version 1

A Toaq syllable is analysed into four Hoelai parts:

1. The consonant, which becomes the glyph in the middle
2. The first phoneme in the nucleus, which is written right of the consonant (unless it is a, in which case it should be omitted)
3. The rest of the nucleus, written left of the consonant (optional)
4. The tone, together with the coda (presence/absence of -q), written above. (This part is empty for neutral tone syllables without -q.)

Note that if the nucleus ends in a diphthong – one of -aı, -ao, -oı, -eı – it is treated as a (3). Moreover, if this diphthong is the whole nucleus, (2) is omitted in favour of it. For example, maı is understood to be m--ai, not m-a-i; it would be written with the -aı glyph from (3).

This generation of Hoelaı was designed for an old version of the Toaq phonology, and as such retains the now-deprecated high () and falling-rising () tones, and this documentation will refer to those tones as they were at the time of release. To use the script for current Toaq, the diacritics are never written, and diacritics are used for .

Hoemai has shared a list of glyphs in a PDF. You can get it File:ToaqScript sheet.pdf.

Reference sheet

Reference sheet

Here’s how your browser renders these characters:

q qQ qR qL qP qB qX qZ qN qM qT qD qK qG qF qV

m p b f n t d c s r l w j x qQ k g h

A_a U_u I_i O_o E_e y_ v_ z_ W_ qY

In this reference sheet, there are three rows:

1. All the tones with and without -q ((4) in the list above), in the usual order.
2. All the consonant glyphs ((1) in the list above), in this order: m p b – f – n t d c s r l – ch j sh – q k g h.
3. All the vowel and diphthong glyphs ((2) and (3)), in this order: a u ı o e aı ao oı eı.

The circle ‘consonant’ signifies the lack of a consonant; an underdot signifies the lack of a vowel. This is the reason why q from the second row was written as a null consonant + -q.

The font

Get the latest version: ToaqScript v0.341 by Hoemai. Note that this font does not include all the characters needed to type Toaq. (see section Mỉao’s modified font)

The reference sheet from above is typed as follows:

q qQ  qR qL  qP qB  qX qZ  qN qM  qT qD  qK qG  qF qV
m p b  f  n t d c s r l  w j x  qQ k g  h
A_a  U_u  I_i  O_o  E_e  y_  v_  z_  W_  qY

1. Consonants stay as they are, with the exception of the two digraphs, ch and sh, which are mapped to w and x respectively.
2. First vowels stay as they are.
3. Last vowels are capitalised, with -aı -ao -oı -eı mapped to y v z W respectively.
4. The tone mark (if present) is written with a capital letter – the corresponding Vietoaq final - according to the table below.

to get:	aq	ā	āq	á	áq	ǎ	ǎq	ả	ảq	â	âq	à	àq	ã	ãq
type:	Q	R	L	P	B	X	Z	N	M	T	D	K	G	F	V

(3) comes first, then (1), then (4), then (2). The null consonant (circle) is q; the null vowel (underdot) is Y. The first sentence from the sample text below would be pFuvjR bi EmNi s xPi yrNuAjLo AdXo tKi tu lPu pM AhPo AgPu n, AdTugRi AhPo d.

Automated ways of converting plain Toaq into ToaqScript input will be made publicly available soon. Currently, the Discord bot can generate an image of the script for you: use %hoe with plain Toaq as input.

Mỉao’s modified font

Hoemaı’s version above does not include characters for some letters. Mỉao has created a version here which has more characters.

Capital “C” is used for “y” and capital “J” is used for “nh”.

Unfortunately, some characters (e.g. “Z”) just can’t be added because in v1, those characters correspond to different sounds.

Demonstration

1. (3) last vowels
2. (1) consonants
3. (4) tone + -q
4. (2) first vowels

OjFe bi mQY dMmLi ymT qNe rG pBo vkXu

OjFe bi mQY dMmLi ymT qNe rG pBo vkXu

OjFe bi mQY dMmLi ymT qNe rG pBo vkXu

Jẽo bı m̄ dảqmı̄q mâı ẻ ràq póq küao

Sample text

pFuvjR bi EmNi s xPi yrNuAjLo AdXo tKi tu lPu pM AhPo AgPu n, AdTugRi AhPo d.

pũjāo bı mỉe sa shí rủaıjōaq dǒa tì tu lú pảq hóa gúa na, dûagī hóa da.

bNu ygN hPo Asi yrP n, ru dNu tNiAtRu bB cu hPo nBivdR rZ AhPo sBo IxNu n, OpKe OrPi d.

bủ gảı hó sıa ráı na, ru dủ tỉtūa báq cu hó níqdāo rǎq hóa sóq shủı na, pèo río da.

Oke dMu hPo s AjPu d.

keo dủq hó sa júa da.

vrK tu wB EbKi wDu hPo OrBehL n, vrK tTiAxRe tBoAfRu n, ru tNi Asi AmPeOhRe bi, ydNu tNiAtRu s xPi AwMe ElMuwRe s xPi AmNeOhRe hM d.

rào tu cháq bìe chûq hó réoqhāq na, rào tîshēa tóqfūa na, ru tỉ sıa méahēo bı, dủaı tỉtūa sa shí chẻaq lủeqchē sa shí mẻahēo hảq da.

Oke mu EtNi mB n, ru AjMu bNu AdNu ElBuwRe hDe mB hi yrP d.

keo mu tỉe máq na, ru jủaq bủ dủa lúeqchē hêq máq hı ráı da.