Músalaı lıeı lô Toaqzu


Musa is a universal alphabet that can write any language phonetically. Here are my notes on how Musa can be used to write the logical language Toaq.

Musa is based on the principle of “one sound = one letter”. As an engineered language, Toaq is very good about its spelling matching up with its pronunciation, in both Deranı and the romanization. However, there are a couple of distinctions written in Musa that are not written in Deranı or the romanization: The letter ꝡ is instead a different letter for each pronunciation, and vowels are written differently depending on whether the syllable is open or closed. The point is that words are written as they are pronounced.

Consonants

All consonants are tall and narrow in shape. They all express exactly one sound, and there are no combinations of letters (like ch, sh, and nh in the romanization) to express a sound. The consonants match 1:1 with the Deranı consonants, with the exception of ꝡ, which is split into two letters depending on how it’s pronounced. The ' is also explicitly written at the beginning of a word.

Vowels

The vowels are simple geometric shapes that are written half the height of a consonant. They can be on the top half or bottom half of the line of text. Unlike the consonants, Musa vowels don’t completely match up with Deranı or romanized vowels; the vowels in closed syllables are written on their side, to reflect their different pronunciation.

If two vowels occur together, such as in the raku endings -ua or -oe, a vertical line  is placed between them.


toa

Tones

Tones are written on the first vowel of the word, fitting into the other half of the space. Unlike Deranı or its romanization, Musa has a mark for the low tone, the alternate pronunciation of the falling and rising tones. Since the tone of a Toaq word applies to the entire word, the height of the other vowels show at what pitch the tone levels out. The falling, broken, and low tones cause the other vowels to be low, while the rising tone causes the other vowels to be high. The hiatus tone could go either way: the other vowels are low if it’s pronounced as “peaking”, and they’re high if it’s pronounced as “dipping”. This is shown in the table below by the arrows.

There is also one more letter for the broken vowel quality that marks the last prefix in a word; it is placed directly after the vowel. (Note the similarity to , the letter for '.)


Rụıkoı jí nêo báq tıeq môı ꝡä bụqde mıo ké seoq da.

Akshara gait

Musa has multiple methods of writing it known as gaits. So far, for the sake of clarity, Musa for Toaq has been presented in Alphabet gait up to this point. However, a gait that better fits Toaq is Akshara gait, a gait in which vowels become flourishes on the consonant. This gait somewhat mimics how Indian and South Asian writing systems work, and is particularly suited to the vowel-heavy Toaq.

Tone marks are written above or below the combined consonant and vowel.




Accents

Musa is a phonetic alphabet, and as stated above, the point is words are written as they are pronounced. So what if you didn’t want to write formally, but express yourself? Perhaps you have an accent or a unique way you pronounce Toaq, and you want to write that. Musa can do that! Here are some letters for sounds in different accents I’ve heard. (Warning: IPA ahead!)

One analysis of Toaq posits that final m is actually its own syllable. Musa can write this too, with the nasal vowel.


nam
/na.m̩/

Saqseq

The Eatoaq reform uses a three-tone system called Saqseq, with each tone having a stressed and unstressed variant. The only truly new tone here is the unstressed falling tone, which is written as a simple high vowel without an extra mark. Every other tone sounds the same, and is written the same, as above.

Charts

Each chart in this page is reproduced here for ease of reference.