Latin writing system

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Revision as of 22:26, 20 December 2022 by Mỉ Mỉao ga Nhäqpy (talk | contribs) (Tone thing)

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/ /w~j/ /ŋ/ /ɡ/ /kʰ/ /ʔ/ /h/ /a/ /u/ /i/ /o/ /ɛ/

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 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) of a word to mark non-default tone on the whole word:

Nr. Mark On "a" Diacritic Unicode Tone name
1 falling tone a falling tone
2 rising tone á acute accent U+0301 rising tone
3 glottal tone ä diaeresis U+0308 falling-glottal tone
4 hiatus tone â circumflex U+0302 rising-falling tone

Sparse tone marking style

Before Toaq Delta, a Toaq text could have chosen not to mark the most common tone, falling tone. This was called sparse tone marking style.

A verb could never carry neutral tone, so there would’ve been no confusion as long as the reader knew enough Toaq to tell particles from verbs. Therefore, this practice was acceptable in informal writing but discouraged in educational materials. This practice was made in connection with the theory that stated that falling tone was actually an inherent, or “default”, tone for verbs just as much as neutral tone was for particles.

Toaq Delta removed neutral tone and the notion of a neutral tone altogether; falling tone, although unmarked, is always understood as falling tone. Thus, one could say that with the introduction of the new four-tone system, sparse tone marking has become the standard, with both the phonology and the orthography backing it.

See also