4.
Geqjaı jí súq
/
Pleased to meet you
In this lesson, we’ll cover how to form the simplest Toaq sentences.
Conversation
Lucas has just moved to a new city where people speak Toaq. He meets Mıqte on the internet. Read their conversation out loud, paying attention to the falling and rising tone marks. What mistake does Lucas make?
LucasJadı.
Sıomche jí. Naq jí.
Bua jí Tóaqgua. Jí Kanada.
Upa, zı! “Kanada jí.”
Kushe, gom jí. Sıom jí Tóaqzu :)
MıqteGıtu! Shadı.
Zuche jí. Geqjaı jí súq.
LucasA, jadı! Kıjı
Je, bua jí mí Saqmeı.
MıqteBua súq mí Saqmeı, ına. Bua jí mí Redueq.
Tıjuı mí Saqmeı mí Redueq.
LucasIna. De mí Redueq!
MıqteNho, de mí Redueq.
Vocabulary
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| jadı | hello |
| kıjı | thank you |
| shadı | welcome |
| upa | oops |
| kushe | sorry |
| gıtu | no worries |
| a | ah, oh |
| je | so… (new topic) |
| jí | I, me |
| súq | you |
| Tóaqzu | Toaq |
| Tóaqgua | Toaqgua |
| zu | ▯ is a language |
| zuche | ▯ is a linguist |
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| sıom | ▯ studies ▯ |
| sıomche | ▯ is a student |
| Kanada | ▯ is Canadian |
| naq | ▯ is male |
| lıq | ▯ is female |
| de | ▯ is beautiful |
| gom | ▯ makes a mistake |
| bua | ▯ inhabits, lives in ▯ |
| geq | ▯ meets ▯ |
| jaı | ▯ feels happy |
| geqjaı | ▯ is happy to meet ▯ |
| tıjuı | ▯ is near ▯ |
Toaqgua
A bit of worldbuilding can really tie a conlang together. It’s nice to imagine the place where the conlang is spoken as a vivid environment with its own people and culture. How would they use Toaq? What words or registers or forms of poetry would they invent?
When we imagine Toaq being spoken somewhere, we often think of Tóaqgua, a fictional country somewhere between Southeast Asia, Lojbanistan, and Atlantis. mí Saqmeı and mí Redueq are equally fictional cities within this country.
Verb, subject, object
The basic structure of a Toaq sentence is: verb, subject, object. The conversation above consists entirely of such sentences, alongside interjections, such as jadı hello and kushe sorry, which may occur mostly anywhere. They are italicized in the text to help you spot them.
Toaq does not distinguish between verbs, nouns, and adjectives in its dictionary. Compare these three sentences:
Sıomche jí.
I am a student.Naq jí.
I am male.Gom jí.
I make a mistake.
If you look these words up in a Toaq dictionary, they’ll look like this:
sıomche — ▯ is a student
naq — ▯ is male
gom — ▯ makes a mistake
Only English differentiates the parts of speech here. From Toaq’s perspective, these are all verbs. (The verb sıomche means, to be a student).
Each of these verbs has a “hole” or “slot” (▯) in its definition. To make a complete sentence, you say the verb, and then a subject to fill the slot.
Verbs with two slots
Now compare these sentences:
Sıom jí Tóaqzu.
I study Toaq.Bua jí mí Saqmeı.
I live in Saqmeı.Tıjuı mí Saqmeı mí Redueq.
Saqmeı is nearby Redueq.
Again, let’s look up these verbs in a Toaq dictionary.
sıom — ▯ studies ▯
bua — ▯ lives in ▯
tıjuı — ▯ is nearby ▯
These verbs have two slots. To make a sentence, you say the verb, and then fill both slots: a subject and an object.
Verbs with one slot are also called intransitive. Verbs with two slots are transitive.
Underfilling
In Toaq, you’re not allowed to “underfill” a verb. Tıjuı jí is not a valid sentence. Coming from other loglangs, this may come as a surprise. Basically, it’s not clear if Tıjuı jí should mean “I’m near something” or “I’m near it” or something else. So, in Toaq, we prefer to just fill the object with an explicit pronoun or article.
Tıjuı jí máq.
I’m nearby it.Tıjuı jí sá raı.
I’m nearby something.
Nouns and tone
Have you been paying attention to the tone marks? Our “nouns” so far are personal pronouns, like súq, and proper nouns like Tóaqzu or mí Mıqte.
- Personal pronouns are in the rising tone.
- Some words exist only as proper nouns, like Tóaqzu, which means the Toaq Language. Such words are inherently in the rising tone.
- Others need the particle mí, which introduces a proper noun. This particle is in the rising tone, and the name itself is in the falling tone.
The basic rule is that verbs are in the falling tone, and their participants — nouns — are introduced by a rising tone.
Bua súq mí Redueq.
Sıom mí Luka Tóaqzu.
What's a "noun"?
We’ll call anything that can fill a verb slot a “noun”, in this textbook. This is a little inaccurate and idiosyncratic, but there’s no confusion, since Toaq does not have lexical nouns.
Linguists might call them something like “argument phrases.” When being more proper, Toaqologists call them noun forms, or aqmı.