2. Báq laı róı báq laq / Letters and sounds
Toaq is most often written using the Latin alphabet, as in this book. There are 22 consonants and 5 vowels. Here is Toaq’s alphabet:
| Letter | Value | As in… |
|---|---|---|
| a | /a/ | Spanish más |
| b | /b/ | buy |
| c | /t͡sʰ/ | meets him |
| ch | /t͡ɕ/ | chin |
| d | /d/ | dad |
| e | /ɛ/ | bed |
| f | /f/ | fix |
| g | /g/ | goal |
| h | /h/ | head |
| ı | /i/ | machine |
| j | /d͡ʑ/ | jeer |
| k | /kʰ/ | keg |
| l | /l/ | leg |
| m | /m/ | make |
| n | /n/ | new |
| nh | /ɳ/ | canyon |
| o | /o/ | Spanish no |
| p | /pʰ/ | pet |
| q | /ŋ/ | sing |
| r | /ɾ/ | Spanish claro |
| s | /s/ | sing |
| sh | /ɕ/ | sheep |
| t | /tʰ/ | take |
| u | /u/ | goose |
| ꝡ | /w~j/ | wet or yet (see below) |
| z | /d͡z/ | beds |
Diphthongs
When a word contains multiple successive vowels, they are usually pronounced as separate syllables. For example, Toaq is pronounced /to.aŋ/ and kua as /ku.a/.
The following four combinations of vowels are exceptions to this:
| Letters | Pronunciation |
|---|---|
| aı | [aj] (as in bye) |
| ao | [aw] (as in now) |
| eı | [ɛj] (as in weigh) |
| oı | [ɔj] (as in boy) |
Pronouncing ꝡ
The pronunciation of the consonant ꝡ depends on the vowel that comes before it.
- After e or ı, it’s pronounced [w] (as in wet).
- After o or u, it’s pronounced [j] (as in yet).
- Elsewhere, either pronunciation is fine.
One way to think of this is that ꝡ wants you to move your lips. After e or ı, they are already in the position to say [j], so ꝡ wants you to say [w] instead! And after saying o or u, your mouth is ready to say [w], so if there’s a ꝡ coming up, it wants you to move your mouth and say [j].
Closed syllables
A finer point of Toaq pronunciation is that vowels before q are pronounced slightly shorter and more “closed” than other vowels. For example, the syllable gu is pronounced [guː] and gum is pronounced [guːm], but guq is pronounced [gʊŋ].
Deranı
Toaq has a writing system called Déranı. It’s not used in this textbook, because the Latin script is what gets used more in daily life. It looks like this:
Bo mí Deranı sá laı, ꝡë coq hóa shí rıalaq bẹ́ıru shí boqlaq.
Deranı has letters which represent one vowel and one consonant.
You can learn more about Deranı here.