Respelling

This "guide to respelling Toaq for English-language contexts" was posted on Discord by Sala. The goal is to present words and names in a way where the pronunciation is obvious to English speakers. For example, the imaginary Toaqgua place name Saqcao is rendered "Sangtsao".

Sentences

For Toaq text that is one sentence or longer, do not respell it, and make every effort to preserve the tone marks. Tone plays an important grammatical role in Toaq and the meaning of Toaq text will be unclear if tone marks are omitted.

If tone marks are not available, ⟨◌́⟩ may be respelled as a slash ⟨/⟩ at the end of the word, ⟨◌̂⟩ may be respelled as a caret ⟨^⟩ at the end of the word, and ⟨◌̈⟩ may simply be omitted. If these tone marks appear anywhere other than the first word (e.g. «zafáq»), a hyphen ⟨-⟩ must be placed before the syllable in which the tone mark appears (e.g. «za-faq/»).

If the letter ⟨ꝡ⟩ is not available, it may be respelled as ⟨v⟩.

Words and short phrases

For individual Toaq words and short phrases (e.g. place names or words with no direct translation), certain rules may be followed to ensure that an English-language audience may pronounce the Toaq text correctly.

• Tone marks are omitted.
• The letter ⟨c⟩ is respelled ⟨ts⟩ (e.g. «cao» → «tsao»).
• The letter ⟨q⟩ is respelled ⟨ng⟩ (e.g. «tıoq» → «tiong») if not immediately followed by ⟨k⟩ or ⟨g⟩. If immediately followed by ⟨k⟩ or ⟨g⟩, it is respelled as ⟨n⟩ (e.g. «saqko» → «sanko»).
• The letter sequence ⟨nh⟩ is respelled ⟨ny⟩ (e.g. «nharu» → «nyaru»).
• The letter sequences ⟨ꝡe⟩, ⟨ꝡa⟩, and ⟨ꝡo⟩ are respelled as ⟨we⟩ (e.g. «ꝡefa» → «wefa»), ⟨wa⟩ (e.g. «ꝡampırı» → «wampiri»), and ⟨yo⟩ (e.g. «ꝡose» → «yose») respectively.
• The vowel sequences ⟨ue⟩, ⟨ıe⟩, ⟨oa⟩, ⟨oe⟩, ⟨ea⟩, and ⟨eu⟩ have a diaeresis ⟨◌̈⟩ placed on the second vowel (e.g. «shea» → «sheä»). If a diaeresis is not available, add ⟨h⟩ at the end if not immediately followed by ⟨q⟩ or ⟨m⟩ (e.g. «shea» → «sheah»).
• For proper names that are multiple words, hyphens may be added at the writer's discretion (e.g. «Mea Sáq Hıu» → «Meä Sang Hiu» or «Meä-Sang-Hiu»).
• The letter sequence ⟨Toaq⟩ is not to be respelled.