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Toaq with Ease

Chíetoaı kọroaı – Lesson 8

Hóı súq, Hóı súq… Je dua jí, ꝡä shıe súq da. You, hey you… I know that you are awake.
Béı bï dua jí, ꝡä pazı jí da. And I, I know that I am annoyed.
Foı jí da! Moı súq hí raı móq? I am bored. What are you thinking about?
Sía raı. Je shoe súq, ꝡä nuo jí ba. Nothing. Let me sleep.
Kushe. Sorry.
Gı núaq ba. Good night.
Hóı súq… Hey you…
Bu choa ba. No talking!
Shao jí, ꝡä suaq súq sá raı da. Tua súq, ꝡä nuo jí ba. I want you to sing something. Make me sleep.
Hí raı nä aojaı súq, ꝡä suaq jí ráı móq? What do you want me to sing?
Zao súq hí suaqse móq? What songs do you know?
Sía. None.

Notes

  1. The word ꝡä is used to create content clauses, also known as that-clauses, because they often begin with the word “that” in English. In simple terms, a content clause is a sentence which can be used within another sentence. This is achieved by turning the sentence into a noun, and this is precisely what ꝡä does. ꝡä shıe súq “that you are awake”, is such a content clause. The word ꝡä is placed before the verb which begins the content clause.

  2. The word béı is placed before words to emphasize them. In speech, that emphasis can additionally be accompanied with a stress on béı itself. We also see the next example of ꝡä here: ꝡä pazı jí “that I’m annoyed”. The full sentence is: Dua jí, ꝡä pazı jí “I know that I’m annoyed”. We write a comma before subclauses.

  3. sía “no”, “zero”, works like and . sía raı means “no thing(s)” or “nothing”.

  4. Kushe is an interjection.

  5. The literal meaning of Bu choa ba is “May there not be talking”.

  6. Here we see two more examples of ꝡä: in ꝡä suaq súq sá raı “that you sing something”, and ꝡä nuo jí “that I sleep”. In Toaq, instead of “I want you to sing”, we say “I want that you sing”: aojaı jí, ꝡä suaq súq.

  7. Here we have a fronted question. Recall that binding raı here means that any subsequent occurence of ráı refers to the same thing(s). Therefore, a more literal translation of this sentence would be: “what things are such that you want that I sing them?”

Exercises

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