16. Bụqfoıge ní ẹguaı / This work is so boring!

Conversation

Ráqsu is hard at work.

Ráqsu: Fúe cıheı shı… fúe cıheı gu…
Síoka: Puımıeq súq hí raı?
Ráqsu: Aaaa, bụqfoıge ní ẹguaı. Enı, kao bẹguaıche ní hao.
Síoka: Ina…
Ráqsu: Tú poq bï, keakaı jí shí zıu họpoha.
Síoka: Choq súq shúq sá gẹjıoqkuna bá?
Ráqsu: Ém? Hıa báq jıoqkuna°?   °formula
Síoka: Hóı Ráqsu…
Ráqsu: Hıaı súq hı̣̂kuı?!

Vocabulary

Word Meaning
puımıeq ▯ counts ▯
foı ▯ is bored
foıge ▯ is boring
guaı ▯ works
guaıche ▯ is a worker
kao ▯ is a file/record
kaı ▯ writes ▯
keakaı ▯ types ▯
shúq simply, just, merely
zıu ▯ is a number
poha ▯ refers to / indicates ▯
luaı ▯ is funny
kuı ▯ is because of ▯
Word Meaning
bụq- super…
gẹ- a little…
ẹ- event of…
bẹ- of…
rạ- like…

Prefixes

Toaq words can have prefixes at the start. These are written with an underdot beneath the first vowel, and pronounced as a little glottal stop during that vowel.

bụqfoıge ẹ́guaı hı̣̂kuı

Prefixes change the meaning of the word they’re attached to in some predictable way. For example, bụq makes a verb “bigger” or more intense, and gẹ makes it small or quaint.

foıge
▯ is boring

bụqfoıge
▯ is super-boring

chaı
▯ is some tea

gẹchaı
▯ is a spot of tea

Prefixes are “lexically separate” from verbs. That means: bụq- (super) has nothing to do with the word buq (mouth).

Typing underdots

These underdots can be hard to type on a phone or computer, and sadly, many fonts don’t support them. So you’ll just as often see people write prefixed words by simply placing a hyphen or colon after the prefix, like buq-foıge or ge:chaı.

Another system is to move the tone mark to the first syllable of the actual word, adding a “falling tone mark” if necessary. So bụ́qfoıge becomes buqfóıge and gẹchaı becomes gechàı.

Which way do you think looks best?

Useful prefixes

The prefix ẹ- turns verbs into single-slot “event of” verbs: if chuq is to eat, then ẹchuq is “to be an event of eating.”

guaı
▯ works

ẹguaı
▯ is a work-event

ẹ́guaı
the work-event

The prefix bẹ- turns verbs into generic adjectives: if toa is word, then bẹtoa means “related to báq toa”, so of words or verbal.

guaıche
▯ is a worker

bẹguaıche
▯ is of workers

The prefix rạ- tells you that a verb is maybe a bit inexact.

echı
▯ is a key

rạ’echı
▯ is like, a key or something

An abstract illustration of a wave of colored lines.

Object-filling

Short pronouns have prefix forms that fill the object slot of a verb. The result is a new single-slot verb, which can then be used as a noun:

paı
▯ is a friend of ▯

sụqpaı
▯ is a friend of you

hú sụqpaı
that friend of yours

The same is true for articles.

sı̣apaı
▯ is a friend of nobody

tụpaı
▯ is a friend of everyone

kuı
▯ is because of ▯

hı̣kuı
▯ is because of what?

hı̣̂kuı
why?

Article prefix scope

These prefix forms of articles aren’t scope operators. Rather, the quantification is “baked into” the definition of the new verb.

Pu geq jí sá tụpaı.
I met a friend-of-everyone.

This tụ- doesn’t wrap the clause in a for-all, and so this sentence doesn’t mean the same thing as:

Tú poq nä, pu geq jí sá họpaı.
For every person, I met a friend-of-them.

Stacking prefixes

You can have more than one prefix on a word. The glottal stop and underdot go on the first vowel of the last prefix. Here is what it looks like to add ẹ- to a word that already has a gẹ- prefix:

meo
▯ feels sad

gẹmeo
▯ feels a little sad

egẹmeo
▯ is an event of feeling a little sad

The shape of prefixes

How do we know egẹmeo isn’t some single prefix egẹ- attached to the word meo?

The shape of Toaq words

Every prefix has the same shape: it starts with a consonant, then some vowels, and then an optional q or m. This shape is called a raku. Every Toaq word is made up of one or more raku, but every prefix is exactly one raku.

This means that there are some pronouns that don’t have a prefix form: nhána (they, plural) is two raku long, and so it can’t become a prefix.

To parse a hypothetical word like beıcoeqdạıfeugımhao, we split off raku from the front until we find the underdot:

beı- / coeq- / dạı- / feugımhao

And now we recognize this as three prefixes attached to the word feugımhao.

The consonant ’

But wait! What about ẹ-? Doesn’t that start with a vowel?

Well, when a Toaq word is written with a vowel at the start, there’s actually an implied glottal stop before it that we don’t write. In the middle of a word, we do write this glottal stop as an apostrophe.

Afarı /ʔa.fa.ɾi/
African

Namı’afarı /na.mi.ʔa.fa.ɾi/
South African

It’s the same for prefixes, and this lets us split any word into raku.

ẹlao /ʔɛ̆ʔɛ̆.law/
a wait

ge’ẹlao /gɛ.ʔɛ̆ʔɛ̆.law/
a little wait