Toede (language)

**Human Toede** (LF: *Lashe Toide*) is the dialect of the language spoken by the amphibian Toede population of Southwestern Nacafi.

## Distribution

Human Toede is spoken across the Loshui Upland province, the western Outer Rud province and the southwestern Ruste-Esh Province as well as in the Duistu marshes. It is an exceptional minority language in Nacafi, because its number of speakers has not decreased notably since the Ankacau expansion that made Lashe Felse the only official language of the Kingdom.

## Phonology

Toede has a rich inventory of vowels and diphthongs. The language has evolved from an ancestor language called Proto-Toede.

Amphibian Toede uses a bilabial fricative similar to /ɸ/, which in Human Toede is often realised as its labiodental counterpart /f/. In a similar fashion the retroflex consonant are often realized as their alveolar counterparts by human speakers.

Toede Vowel Inventory
 Close-Mid
 Mid
 Open

Vowels marked with an asterisk (\*) only appear in diphthongs.

Toede Diphthongs
 Closing
 i-Fronting

\*\*Quality describes the (long) vowel the diphthong evolved from.

## Number System

The Toede, having four fingers on each hand, use a senary (base-6) number system by counting the spaces between the fingers. For numbers larger than 15sen (11dec), they use a subbase of 12.

## Nouns

### Noun Classes

Toede has at least 19 noun classes, more than half of which are for singular nouns, five are for plurals and one covers collective nouns. The singular classes distinguish nouns more specifically, while the plural classes make broader distinctions based on animacy. The noun classes reflect Toede lifestyle, having a dedicated class for water bodies and natural phenomena and grouping insects together with (other) edible foodstuffs. Several noun classes contain suffixes for specific locations. It is unknown whether there are more place-related noun suffixes than the three attested classes.

(tbc)

## Verbs

### Verb Agreement and Direct-Inverse Alignment

The subject and object of a transitive sentence are marked on the verb by suffixes. However, the hierarchy of noun classes doesn't allow for some suffix orders. In such cases, an inverse marker is required to form the correct verb form.

For instance, in the sentence that translates to "the fly hovers above the lake", "fly" is the subject and "lake" the object (the respective verb is transitive in Toede). However, since flies belong to the inanimate Noun Class V and water bodies to the semi-animate Noun Class IV, the person marker that denotes the fly cannot precede the marker that denotes the lake. The suffixes are switched and the Inverse prefix is added to the verb.

### Tense and Aspect

Toede distinguishes three tenses (Nonpast, Immediate Past and Remote Past) and at least four aspects (Perfective, Imperfective, Inchoative, Cessative).

(tbc)

### Directional-Active-Stative Alignment

A special feature of Toede is its use of so-called light verbs to indicate the directionality of a verbal phrase or, for movement-neutral verbal phrases, its active or stative quality. Directionality can be towards (allative) or away from the speaker (ablative). There are therefore only four main light verbs in Toede which are prefixed to an often nominal stem to make up the core of a verbal phrase.

## Example Sentences

1) **Söymdè däwörllò däi mwaoonggoe sankuetgoedè.**

/ʂœʏ̯m.ɖə ɖɛ.wœɻ.ʎɔ ɖɛɪ̯ mwa.oːŋ.ɡɔɐ̯ ʂa.ǂuə̯ʈ.gɔɐ̯.ɖə/

```
söym-dè dä-wör-llò däi mwa-oong-goe sa-nkuet-goe-dè.
human-CL1P CL1P.POS-fire-CL3 NEG have-know-CL1a go-capture-CL1a-CL3
```

*The humans aren't able to bring their fire under control. / Don't give humans too many responsibilities.*

2) **Dägaosdè mundänäsee kròerehozagoen.**

/ɖɛgaɔ̯ʂɖə muɳɖɛɳɛʂeː kɻɔɐ̯ɻehoʐagoə̯ɳ/

```
dä-gaos-dè mund-änä-see kroe-re-hoza-goe-n
CL1P.POS-saint-CL1P 1P.POS-tongue-CL4b INV-do-scare-CL1P-CL4b
```
*Their gods fear our tongues.*