Beginner Course

Ahoı íme súq Tóaqzu ka!

Welcome to Toaq!

Introduction

Toaq is a constructed language—specifically a logical and artistic language—created by Hoemaı and developed and maintained by a community of speakers. It is tonal (meaning change in pitch results in change in meaning) and is meant to be fully unambiguous and parsable using predicate logic. If you don’t know what either of those words mean, don’t worry! Tones will be explained in the Phonology chapter, and you can learn Toaq without worrying about logic at all.

Without further ado, let’s get started!

Phonology

Phonemes

Toaq’s sound inventory consists of 22 consonant sounds, 5 vowel sounds, 4 diphthongs from those vowel sounds, and 4 tones. Here is a table with all of Toaq’s sounds and tones:

Consonants

Letter	Pronunciation (English approximation)	Pronunciation (IPA)	Audio
M/m	the M in "milk"	[m]
B/b	the B in "ball"	[b]
P/p	the first P in "prep"	[pʰ]
F/f	the F in "flower"	[f]
N/n	the N in "north"	[n]
D/d	the D in "dark"	[d]
Z/z	the DS in "toads"	[d͡z]
C/c	the TS in "hats"	[t͡sʰ]
S/s	the S in "sandwich"	[s]
R/r	the TT in American "battery"	[ɾ]
L/l	the L in "like"	[l]
Nh/nh	the Ñ in "piñata"	[ɲ ~ nj]
J/j	the J in "jeans"	[dʑ]
Ch/ch	the CH in "cheese"	[t͡ɕʰ]
Sh/sh	the SH in "sheep"	[ɕ]
Ꝡ/ꝡ	the W in "walrus" or the Y in "yes"	[w ~ j]
Q/q	the NG in "thing"	[ŋ]
G/g	the G in "green"	[g]
K/k	the C in "creek"	[kʰ]
'	the stop in "uh-oh"	[ʔ]
H/h	the H in "hat"	[h]

Vowels

Letter	Pronunciation (English approximation)	Pronunciation (IPA)	Audio
A/a	the A in "bra"	[a]
U/u	the OO in "boot"	[u ~ ʊ]
I/ı	the EE in "free"	[i ~ ɪ]
O/o	the AW in British "yawn"	[o ~ ɔ]
E/e	the E in "bed"	[ɛ ~ e]

Diphthongs

Letter	Pronunciation (English approximation)	Pronunciation (IPA)	Audio
Aı/aı	the Y in “cry”	[aɪ̯ ~ aj]
Ao/ao	the OW in “wow”	[aʊ̯ ~ aw ~ aː.o]
Oı/oı	the OY in “toy”	[ɔɪ̯ ~ ɔj]
Eı/eı	the AY in “gray”	[ɛɪ̯ ~ ɛj]

Tones

Diacritic	Pronunciation (IPA)	Audio
◌ (falling)	[˥˩ ~ ˨˩]
◌́ (rising)	[˧˥ ~ ˨˩]
◌̈ (glottal)	[˨ʔ˩]
◌̂ (rising-falling)	[˧˥.˥˧ ~ ˨˩.˩˥]