The Derani alphabet (Toaq: (áofabeta mı Deranı)) is the official native writing system of Toaq, first introduced in Toaq Delta. It is the successor of Hoelai.
Symbols
Letters
Below is a list of Derani letters. Vowels share letters with consonants.
| Derani | Latin | Name | IPA |
|---|---|---|---|
| | M | (mameı) | /m/ |
| | B, U | (bubue) | /b/, /u/ |
| | P | (pıpoq) | /pʰ/ |
| | F, E | (fofuaq) | /f/, /ɛ/ |
| | N | (nanaq) | /n/ |
| | D | (dudeo) | /d/ |
| | T | (tıtıeq) | /tʰ/ |
| | Z | (zozeo) | /d͡z/ |
| | C, I | (cecoa) | /t͡sʰ/, /i/ |
| | S, A | (saqseoq) | /s/, /a/ |
| | R | (raırua) | /ɾ/ |
| | L | (laolıq) | /l/ |
| | NH | (nhanhoq) | /ɲ/ |
| | J | (jujuo) | /d͡ʑ/ |
| | CH | (chıchao) | /t͡ɕʰ/ |
| | SH | (shoshıa) | /ɕ/ |
| [note 1] | Ꝡ | (ꝡeꝡa) | /w~j/ |
| | Q | (aq'aq) | /ŋ/ |
| | G, O | (guguı) | /ɡ/, /o/ |
| | K | (kıkue) | /kʰ/ |
| [note 1][note 2] | ' | (o'aomo) | /ʔ/ |
| | H | (hehaq) | /h/ |
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Tone marks cannot attach to this letter due to its shape. They attach to the letter after it instead.
- ↑ O'aomo is always written in word-medial positions. In a word-initial position, it is only written if the letter after the first vowel letter is also a vowel letter, with no hiatus or diphthong mark between them.
When reading, one should assume that the first letter is a consonant. If the second letter is consonant-only, the first letter should be a vowel.
Prefixes are separated from the main word by a after the last prefix.
Tones
The first tone 
is not marked.
| Tone | Derani | Latin |
|---|---|---|
| 1 (falling) | ◌ | ◌ |
| 2 (rising) | ◌ | ◌́ |
| 3 (low glottal) | ◌ | ◌̈ |
| 4 (rising-falling) | ◌ | ◌̂ |
Punctuation
| Derani | Usage |
|---|---|
| | declarative full stop |
| | non-declarative, non-interogative full stop |
| | question mark |
| | subordination mark, marks increase or decrease in clausal nesting |
| | quotation mark |
| and | marks variables to which can be referred with anaphoric pronouns (only the head of a serial gets marked) |
| | for determiners with null complements (e.g. saying (sá) instead of (sá raı)) |
Unicode encoding
To type Derani characters, we use the block F16B0–F16DF of the Unicode Private Use Area. Check out the toaq/fonts repository on GitHub for fonts that can display these characters. See here for typing Derani.
| F16Bx | F16Cx | F16Dx | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | | DERANI LETTER MAMEI | | DERANI LETTER SHOSHIA | ||
| 1 | | DERANI LETTER MAMEI CODA | | DERANI LETTER VEVA | ||
| 2 | | DERANI LETTER BUBUE | | DERANI LETTER AQ-AQ | | DERANI MODIFIER LETTER PREFIX |
| 3 | | DERANI LETTER PIPOQ | | DERANI LETTER GUGUI | | DERANI QUOTATION MARK |
| 4 | | DERANI LETTER FOFUAQ | | DERANI LETTER KIKUE | | DERANI SUBORDINATION MARK |
| 5 | | DERANI LETTER NANAQ | | DERANI LETTER O-AOMO | | DERANI DECLARATIVE FULL STOP |
| 6 | | DERANI LETTER DUDEO | | DERANI LETTER HEHAQ | | DERANI OTHER FULL STOP |
| 7 | | DERANI LETTER TITIEQ | | DERANI INTERROGATIVE FULL STOP | ||
| 8 | | DERANI LETTER ZOZEO | | DERANI START OF CARTOUCHE | ||
| 9 | | DERANI LETTER CECOA | | DERANI END OF CARTOUCHE | ||
| A | | DERANI LETTER SAQSEOQ | ◌ | DERANI COMBINING RISING TONE | | DERANI SYMBOL FOR NULL VARIABLE |
| B | | DERANI LETTER RAIRUA | ◌ | DERANI COMBINING LOW GLOTTAL TONE | ||
| C | | DERANI LETTER LAOLIQ | ◌ | DERANI COMBINING RISING-FALLING TONE | ||
| D | | DERANI LETTER NHANHOQ | ◌◌ | DERANI COMBINING HIATUS MARK | ||
| E | | DERANI LETTER JUJUO | ◌◌ | DERANI COMBINING DIPHTHONG MARK | ||
| F | | DERANI LETTER CHICHAO | ||||
Use of the combining characters follows Unicode convention, with tone marks appearing immediately after the letter they attach to, and the diphthong mark appearing between the two letters it attaches to.
The encoding has separate characters for the start and end of a cartouche. This is because cartouches can span across more than one word, so fonts need both ends delineated to know which letters they extend over.
Displaying Derani on Discord
Below are instructions for displaying the Derani script on Discord:
- (#1) Download and install the font at https://github.com/toaq/fonts/releases/ on your OS (for MS Windows, picking the TTF file may be recommendable);
- (#2) Install Better Discord, OpenAsar, or another equivalent, which will add several customization options to the interface of Discord;
- (#3) Open Discord, then open the custom CSS dialog (in the case of Better Discord, go to ⚙ ⊳ Custom CSS), and there copy-paste the following:
:root {
--font-primary: "gg sans", "Noto Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, Derani, sans-serif;
}
[id^="message-content-"] {
line-height: normal;
}
Then, click “Save”, then “Update” (or alternatively, “Live Update”).
- (#4) Kill Discord, then restart it (doing Ctrl+R is apparently not enough; merely closing the application may not necessarily be sufficient).