Prefix Reform

Prefix Reform is a proposal by uakci to change how prefixes interact with the stems of words.

Note: the two parts of the proposal, the spelling changes and the pronunciation changes, could be considered independently of each other.

Reasons

1. Prefixes currently act weird.
   1. They are unable to interact with . This proposal would allow prefixes to go on words with .
   2. It is unclear how exactly they affect vocalic length. Plus, those interactions are often quite subtle and easily missed – consider bộtao vs. bô'otao. This makes prefixes hard to teach and possibly discouraging to a new learner trying to produce them in speech.
2. The current spelling of prefixes is not computer-friendly. They are difficult (if not impossible) to type for many and some characters, like ı̣ often do not display correctly in many fonts. This proposal would allow for easier input and guarantee compatibility with most good fonts.
   • There's a gotcha where e- (any prefix) + ano (any vowel-initial stem) is not ẹano [ˈʔĕʔĕano] but ẹ'ano [ˈʔɛ̆ʔɛ̆ʔaːno]. The latter is actually ea- + no! – but this subtlety is not explained or taught to people, and it's likewise unintuitive. Worse yet, the glottal interposition (which turns /ɛ/ and /ɛː/ into [ɛ̆ʔɛ̆]) effectively splinters vowel length into three instead of two!

Spelling changes

Instead of putting the tone mark on the first syllable, put it on the first syllable of the stem. In the case of a word with , use as the diacritic. Examples:

Official	mụfoaq	lạ́maı	tọ̈ꝡa (invalid word)	bộtao
Proposal	mufòaq	lamáı	toꝡä	botâo

Pronunciation changes

TL;DR: You always stress the first syllable of the stem. Prefixes should be quieter, shorter, and use mid tone.

• Stress the first syllable of the stem rather than the prefix. For instance, in puchumgòıchuq ‘was taking medicine’, stress the -goı-, no different than bugòıchuq ‘doesn’t/isn’t taking medicine’ or even just goıchuq ‘take medicine’.
• This stressed syllable should be louder and/or longer and/or more extreme in terms of the tone contour.
• The unstressed prefix syllables should be shortened with regards to regular vowel length: bunúq ‘the non-snake’ could be [bŭnʊq]. (◌̆, the breve, is used to signal “extra-short” vowel length in the IPA.) At any rate, they should sound shorter than the stressed syllable of the stem (so [bunuː] for bunú is fine).
• Optionally, the unstressed prefix syllables may use the weak forms of their core vowel: /u/ goes to [ʊ], /i/ goes to [ɪ], /o/ goes to [ɔ]. These contextual allophones are already used elsewhere in the language – namely, [ɔ] appears in oı /ɔj/, and the three are also triggered before q, e.g., bıq [bɪŋ] and not [biŋ]. Now imagine this is yet another context for them to be weakened. This leads to spicy phonoaesthetics not seen anywhere else in the language: jıa- [dʑɪa]!!!
• In terms of tone, there are two options, the hard option and the easy option:

  The hard option

  Make the prefix or prefixes’ contour “anticipate” the stem’s contour. For example, if the stem starts high, the prefixes should be high. If the stem starts lower, the prefixes should be there as well. This option has turned out hard in practice because it’s not as easy to control the tone contour of a weak unstressed syllable.

  The easy option

  Always pronounce all prefixes with the mid level tone, [˧]. Extra care should be taken not to allow the tone to slide upwards or downwards as it’s pronounced – in other words, avoid *[˧˦] or *[˧˨].

Illustrative examples (using the easy option):

Official	puchụmtao	[ˈpuː˥˨t͡ɕŭʔŭm˨˩tʰaw˩]		jı̣achıa	[ˈd͡ʑĭʔĭa˥˨t͡ɕia˨˩]		lạ́maı bẹ́ıroı	[ˈlăʔă˨˦maj˦˥ ˈbɛ̆ʔɛ̆j˨˩rɔj˩]		N/A			jụ̂aqjuaı	[ˈd͡ʑŭʔŭaŋ˧˥˨d͡ʑu˨˩aj˩]
Proposal	puchumtào	[pʊ˧t͡ɕʊm˧ˈtaːw˥˩]		jıachìa	[d͡ʑɪa˧ˈt͡ɕiːa˥˩]		lamáı beıróı	[la˧ˈmaj˧˥ bɛj˧ˈrɔj˧˩]		toꝡä	[tʰɔ˧ˈja˧˨ʔa˨˩]		juaqjûaı	[d͡ʑʊaŋ˧ˈd͡ʑuː˧˥˨aj˨˩]

The value of this proposal, apart from more flexibility and less ambiguity, is that stems no longer alternate between stressed and unstressed depending on whether they have prefixes attached to them (think juıtaq vs. bụjuı). As another pleasant side effect, polyrakuic words in are now possible (like äımu, which before was ambiguous with the mid-falling allotonal forms of ạımu and ạ́ımu).

Thinking clitically – a fifth tone

Let us think about clitics – little segments of words that attach to other words rather than forming full units. For instance, in English, the possessive marker ’s can attach to words like California’s reputation or entire phrases like my most beloved partner’s necklace or that one guy we saw in the street’s student card. But then there’s nothing stopping us from spelling it as a separate word: California ’s reputation, for instance. More on clitics over on Wikipedia if you’re interested.

Similarly in Toaq, but let’s for a moment assume that the clitical “prefix toneme” is spelled like (as a macron). Its pronunciation is outlined above, but we could summarize it as a mid-flat tone that also nullifies vowel length: jıa /dʑiːa˥˩/ but jīa /dʑia˧/. Putting this together into a new table:

Official	puchụmtao	jı̣achıa	lạ́maı bẹ́ıroı	N/A	jụ̂aqjuaı
“Halfway”	puchụmtao	jı̣achıa	lạmáı bẹıróı	tọꝡä	jụaqjûaı
Main proposal	puchumtào	jıachìa	lamáı beıróı	toꝡä	juaqjûaı
This idea	pū chūm tao	jīa chıa	lā máı bēı róı	tō ꝡä	jūaq jûaı

With this in mind, we may look at the neat symmetry in which focus markers behave when alternated between their inherent and this new :

luı	do	jí	súq	kú	tú	maoja
‘I have given you all the apples.’
luı	do	jí	súq	kū	tú	maoja
‘I have given you all the apples.’

See also

• uakci’s original message