21. Ao hıa báq raı? / How would things be?

Conversation

Míqte and Ánhe are talking about feeding their cat, Gége.

Míqte

Daı fı buaq fatuı jí ké tuchao, orooo.

Shê, ꝡä faq hú, nä haqdo kú súq Gége nhá?

Ánhe

inha (-ω-ゞ

âo wä kato máo jí nä haqdo hí raı jí?

Míqte

Ꝡa, ıu rara kato súq da. Tíu zoaıcıa jí, ꝡá ea haqdo béı súq máo áq nha.

Ánhe

rawom,,,

Toaq and cats

Toaqists love cats. The most upvoted word in the community dictionary is nhaq, which means meow. Perhaps this is only natural for a language that grew on the internet? Perhaps we can imagine Toaqgua is similarly crazy about cats? Whatever the case, Toaq has dozens of words for cat-related things. Here is just a sample.

Word	Meaning
nhaq	meow
roro	purr
nhaqdı	hewwo, meowdy
raꝡom	mrowl
garao	grrr, rawr
kato	▯ is a cat.
gochıq	▯ is a domestic cat.
nhamnhaq	▯ is a precious kitty.
nıokato	▯ is a kitten.
nhaqla	▯ is a kitty.
maomao	▯ is a meowmeow cat.
nhaqnhaq	▯ is a kitty-cat.
katochu	▯ is a catboy/catgirl/catperson.
katosoı	▯ cat-fights with ▯.
nhaqluaı	▯ is silly / :3-worthy.
nhaqchoa	▯ meows.
rorochoa	▯ purrs.
nhaqbeı	degree: sooo much, meow!

Vocabulary

Word	Meaning
shê … nä	if … then is
dâı … nä	if … then can
âo … nä	if … then would
êa … nä	if … then could
ıu	ꝡá is the case in the real world
buaq	▯ fails to lá
fatuı	▯ rides ▯
tuchao	▯ is a bus
haqdo	▯ feeds ▯
zoaı	▯ doubts that ꝡá
zoaıcıa	▯ is certain that ꝡá
áq	itself/themselves

Saying “if” in Toaq

The basic pattern for saying “if X then Y” in Toaq is: shê, ꝡä X, nä Y.

Both X and Y are clauses, and can contain a tense word.

Shê, ꝡä seo súq Élıza, nä ruaı súq.
If you’re married to Eliza, then you’re royalty.

Sá cıoq nä, shê, ꝡä naı dem jí cíoq, nä notuq ké kea.
There’s a button that, if I press it, the machine explodes.

Ma shê, ꝡä mala choq jí Tóaqzu, nä poq jua jí móq?
Is it true that, if I’ve ever used Toaq, I’m a weird person?

You can also just say she Y, leaving the condition implicit.

She jıa cho súq ní nha.
(If so-and-so, then) you’ll like this.

Possibility vs. necessity

The word shê means expresses a conditional necessity. We use it to say: in all worlds (cases) where X is true, Y is true.

If we use dâı instead of shê, we can express a mere possibility: in some worlds where X is true, Y is true.

(In other words, shê is a bit like tú and dâı is a bit like sá.)

Dâı, ꝡä fa súq Rédueq, nä geq súq Míqte.
If you go to Rédueq, you might meet Míqte.

Again, we can use it in the falling tone to leave the condition implicit.

Daı geq súq Míqte.
You might meet Míqte.

Possible worlds

A possible world, or simply world, is just a way things could be: a maximal situation. The Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy has a lovely introduction (read the first two paragraphs).

Most Toaq sentences are about the real world: they ask “In the real world, is there some event…?” or they claim “In the real world, there exists some event…” But conditionals give us a way to quantify over other worlds: “If you were in Paris right now…” says something about all worlds, minimally different from the real world, in which you are in Paris but everything else is pretty much the same.

Worlds pop up absolutely everywhere in Toaq semantics. We say that a Toaq clause represents a function from worlds to truth-values. A clause tı súq Párı represents a function f, where f(w) is true if and only if you are in Paris in world w.

If I were…

The words shê/dâı have counterparts âo/êa, which add the background information that the condition X is in fact not met in the real world. Linguists call these counterfactual or subjunctive conditionals.

In English, this corresponds to conditional statements like “if you were…” or “if we had been…”

The word ao expresses a counterfactual necessity:

Âo, ꝡä seo súq Élıza, nä ruaı súq.
If you were married to Eliza, you would be royalty. (But you’re not.)

And the word ea expresses a counterfactual possibility:

Ea jaı jí.
(If such-and-such were the case,) I could be happy. (But it’s not.)

The words áq and chéq

The word áq means “yourself / herself / itself / themselves…” It refers to the (possibly plural) subject of the clause it’s in.

The word chéq means “each other”. It refers back to the subject, but specifically it relates members of a plural subject to each other.

Kıaı ké sımı áq.
The monkeys take care of themselves.

Kıaı ké sımı chéq.
The monkeys take care of each other.

Note that the first sentence here means: “the monkeys (together) take care of the monkeys (together)” — not necessarily implying that each monkey takes care of itself. The group acts as a group to take care of the group.

The áq rule

There’s a rule called the áq rule, saying that you must use áq when possible. Specifically: “variable” pronouns like hó and máq can’t refer to the subject of the clause they’re in.

In the first sentence below, hó doesn’t refer to ké naq. The áq rule tells us that, if the speaker meant that, they would’ve said áq. (Think about how in English, it sounds weird to say him instead of himself.)

Aojaı ké lıq, ꝡá cho ké naq hó.
The girl wants the guy to like her.

Aojaı ké lıq, ꝡá cho ké naq áq.
The girl wants the guy to like himself.

Next chapter: 99. TODO