Notation
Tonesu uses a small set of written marks in addition to its letters. This page explains what each one means and when you'll see it.
' — Juncture marker
Marks the left boundary of a subcompound inside a longer compound chain.
Without ', a compound is parsed right-branching: A-B-C = A modifies [B-C].
With ', the left group is explicitly bounded: A'B-C = [A] modifies [B-C] as a pre-bound unit.
Spoken by lengthening the vowel before the marker — pa-wi'ka-su sounds like pawii·kasu. In dictation or formal reading, the word peld is inserted at the boundary instead.
~ — Approximation mark
Pre-positional hedge: "approximately, roughly, on the order of."
Always appears at the left edge of the unit it qualifies — a sentence-level noun phrase, a single word, or a subcompound after '.
~tonesu → approximately truth = theory, working model, conjecture
~zo-li → something like a person / roughly person-class
~ta ti-be → somewhere around the future / roughly "later"
~gal nu li → about 3 people
After ', ~ hedges only the subcompound that follows it:
~A'B-C → approximately {the whole compound A-B-C}
A'~B-C → A modifies {approximately B-C} ← only the subcompound is hedged
Spoken form: ven.
() — Evidential frame
Wraps a clause to mark its content as reported, inferred, or unattributed — not directly asserted by the speaker.
(la-ze ne vo-be) → reportedly she is well
~(la-ze si lo-tofe-su de) → approximately / reportedly: she claims the institution is failing
There are three ways to handle epistemic stance in Tonesu — they are distinct:
| Form | Who asserts | What is encoded |
|---|---|---|
la-mi to {prop} |
speaker (first person) | speaker's calibrated confidence level |
la-source si {prop} |
named source | a specific entity outputs this claim |
(prop) |
nobody named | reported, inferred, or epistemically reserved — speaker not committing |
No spoken phoneme for ( or ); the frame is realised prosodically as a slight boundary pause.
[] — Aside / commentary frame
Wraps editorial annotation that does not alter the truth conditions of the surrounding text. The defining test: removing all [] content must leave the surrounding sentences semantically unchanged.
[ka-fesi ne-yu] is a purposive aside: to warn them.
In analytical or critical writing, [] carries annotations such as:
- source notes:
[citation needed]·[UN food report 2024] - logic audit flags:
[unsupported cascade]·[topic shift: policy → person] - missing structure:
[probable premise: higher cost reduces wellbeing] - discourse labels:
[closing argument]·[response to prior claim]
The [] frame may not upgrade the evidential status of a claim — it annotates what is already there; it does not substitute for evidence.
: and :: — Topic frame and definition marks
These two marks operate at the boundary between annotation and Tonesu sentences.
:: — canonical / structural definition (reference material only — not in sentences)
The right side gives a formal decomposition:
: — two roles:
In reference material: a plain-language gloss or functional reading.
In Tonesu sentences: a sentence-initial topic frame — "as for {topic}, the following holds." One per clause.
As for the scholar — she examines the theory. As for the resonance — I have no perceptual basis for it.Spoken form for : is helm; for :: is helms — the doubled mark takes a suffix s to make the distinction audible in speech.
- — Hyphen (analytic only)
Never written in Tonesu. Used in these pages to show root boundaries for teaching purposes.
to-ne-su is the analytic form; tonesu is the written word.