Latin writing system

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Revision as of 13:37, 1 February 2022 by Laqme (talk | contribs)

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 rising tone á acute accent U+0301 rising tone
3 rising-creaky tone ä diaeresis U+0308 rising-creaky tone
4 falling tone hook above U+0309 falling tone
5 rising-falling tone â circumflex accent U+0302 rising-falling tone
6 mid-falling tone à grave accent U+0300 mid-falling tone
7 falling creaky tone ã tilde U+0303 falling creaky tone

A Toaq text may choose not to mark the most common tone, falling tone, as a verb can never carry the neutral tone. This is called sparse tone marking style. This practice is acceptable in informal writing but is discouraged in educational materials.

See also