Orthography
Latin orthography
Underneath each grapheme is an example word beginning with the corresponding sound (except for ⟨ q ⟩, which can only appear in coda position).
Digraphs involving ⟨ h ⟩ are palatalized versions of the h-less forms.
The letter ⟨ ꝡ ⟩ can alternatively be written ⟨ v ⟩ as an emergency replacement. Writing it ⟨ w ⟩ or ⟨ y ⟩ depending on where it appears (and thus, how it is pronounced) is another option, but it has the downside that it suggests that there exist two distinct words wa and ya, which is not the case. Also, there are environments where one is free to pronounce ⟨ ꝡ ⟩ as either [w] or [j]. Spelling it ⟨ w ⟩ or ⟨ y ⟩ would obscure this fact.
The apostrophe ⟨ ' ⟩ is normally omitted word-initially (e.g. anı "sand"), but always explicit word-internally (e.g. hıu'eku "hippopotamus").
/i/ is written without a dot above: ⟨ ı ⟩. This increases the visual contrast between an unaccented ⟨ ı ⟩ and one which carries a tone diacritic (⟨ í ⟩, ⟨ ï ⟩, ⟨ î ⟩).
/m.m/ schwa insertion, which can occur at syllable boundaries, is not reflected in writing (e.g. ⟨ tam moı ⟩).
Tone marking
| Falling tone |  |
| Rising tone |  |
| Low glottal tone |  |
| Rising-falling tone |  |
Prefix-stem delineation
The stem of a word is separated from its prefixes by placing a dot under the final prefix:
| ⟨ mụjaı ⟩ |
The prefix-stem boundary may also be marked by a hyphen. In that case, the underdot becomes optional.
| ⟨ mụ-jaı ⟩ or ⟨ mu-jaı ⟩ |
Orthographic conventions
• The first word of every sentence is capitalized.
• Proper names, countries, languages, and cultures, are capitalized.
• Subordinate clauses are surrounded by commas.
• Non-interrogative sentences end with a period ⟨ . ⟩, while interrogative sentences end with a question mark ⟨ ? ⟩.
In informal, relaxed settings, these conventions need not apply.
Derani
Deranı (pronounced [ˈdɛːɾani]) is the native writing system of Toaq and the official script of Toaq Delta. It is written in a pink font throughout the website, while romanized words are written in light blue.
Deranı is an alphabet with a number of special symbols and markings for various grammar-related phenomena.
The Derani consonants
Syllable-final /m/ is written using the letter .
The Derani vowels
The vowels use the same letters as five of the consonants. As consonants and vowels alternate in words, this creates no ambiguities in sequences of CV(Q) syllables. To keep strings involving VV and F unambiguous, double vowels are specially marked:
• The falling diphthongs (aı, ao, oı, eı) a special mark is placed under these diphthongs: ◌◌
| | | | |
• A hiatus mark is placed under non-falling VV sequences: ◌◌
For example:
| nua |
mıo |
Diphthong marking and hiatus marking also help increase readability.
• An explicit glottal stop is prepended to vowel-initial syllables whose second letter is one which has both a consonant and a vowel value:
| aco |
The default assumption when reading Deranı words should be that they begin with a consonant. If the second letter is a consonant-only glyph, then the reader immediately knows that the first letter must be a vowel. With practice, this becomes automatic.
Tone marking
The falling tone is never marked.
The other tones are indicated as follows:
| ◌ | falling tone (unmarked) |
| ◌ | rising tone |
| ◌ | subordination tone |
| ◌ | adjunct tone |
Tone marks are placed on the first letter of a word, whether it is a consonant or a vowel.
rúa the-flower
! 'the flower'
ánı the-sand
! 'the sand'
Prefix-stem delineation
The stem of a word is separated from its prefixes by
| ◌◌ |
mụjaı un-happy
! 'unhappy'
Special symbols
Derani uses special symbols to indicate:
• quotations and proper names
• subordination
• the end of a sentence
| | quotation mark |
| | subordination mark |
| | end declarative sentence |
| | end sentence that is neither declarative nor interrogative |
| | end interrogative sentence |
| words are separated by a space |
Proper names and quoted material are enclosed in
Sara
!
shu nuaı *word* ‹nuaı›
! 'the word ‹nuaı›'
An increase or decrease in the clausal nesting level is indicated with
Dua jí ꝡä ruqshua. know *1s* *comp* rain
! 'I know that it's raining.'
Declarative sentences are closed off with (as in the example above), while interrogative sentences end with
Ma jaı súq móq? *comp* happy *2s* *int*
! 'Are you happy?'
Marking of variables
Derani marks variables explicitly. "Variables" here are those verbs which anaphoric pronouns can refer to, such as the complement of a determiner.
To mark a variable, the word is wrapped in a cartouche-like enclosure. For example, this is what the word rua 'flower' looks like thus marked:
| |
In-context examples:
Kaqsı élu jí.
look.at the-elephant *1s*
! 'The elephant looked at me.'
Paı mí Sara.
friend the-called Sara
! 'Sara is a friend.'
For DPs with null complements, the null variable is indicated by the following symbol:
| |
Pronouns do not count as variables for the purpose of variable marking.
In serial verbs, only the head verb counts as the variable, and therefore only it gets marked.
Sample text
Below is a short sample text:
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