Latin writing system

Revision as of 13:40, 1 February 2022 by Laqme (talk | contribs) (→‎Diacritics)

Toaq is most commonly written using a modified Latin writing system, with diacritics on the vowels to mark tone.

Alphabet

The alphabet, in native order, is:

m b p f n d t z c s r l nh j ch sh q g k ' h a u ı o e y
/m/ /b/ /pʰ/ /f/ /n/ /d/ /tʰ/ /d͡z/ /t͡sʰ/ /s/ /ɾ/ /l/ /ɲ/ /d͡ʑ/ /t͡ɕʰ/ /ɕ/ /ŋ/ /g/ /kʰ/ /ʔ/ /h/ /a/ /u/ /i/ /o/ /ɛ/ /ə/

In semi-native order, the consonants are ordered in the Latin/Unicode way (b, c, ch, d…) while the vowels are still at the end, in a, u, ı, o, e, y order.

In non-native or Latin order, the whole alphabet is ordered like the Latin alphabet: a, b, c, ch, d…

The vowel ı is written without its dot, to avoid confusion with the tone diacritics listed below.

Diacritics

The following diacritics are placed on the first vowel (a, u, ı, o, e, y) of a word to mark non-neutral tone on the whole word:

Nr. Mark On "a" Diacritic Unicode Tone name
2   á acute accent U+0301 rising tone
3   ä diaeresis U+0308 rising-creaky tone
4   hook above U+0309 falling tone
5   â circumflex accent U+0302 rising-falling tone
6   à grave accent U+0300 mid-falling tone
7   ã tilde U+0303 falling creaky tone

Sparse tone marking style

A Toaq text may choose not to mark the most common tone,  . This is called sparse tone marking style.

A verb can never carry the neutral tone, so there is no confusion, as long as the reader knows enough Toaq to tell particles from verbs. Therefore, this practice is acceptable in informal writing but is discouraged in educational materials.

See also