Tuki Tiki

Tuki Tiki (meaning "repetitive language" or "roundabout language", from Toki Pona toki sike) is a radically minimalist conlang and an influencial one of Tokiponidos. It was created by ka Tumu (Ðoom Epictooþ) starting in 2020. It has 39 words and 8 phonemes.

Logo of tuki tiki

While Tuki Tiki is more minimalist compared to Toki Pona, it is not—nor is it meant to be—absolutely minimalist or the language with the fewest amount of words. Its goal is to to shrink down Toki Pona's grammar and vocabulary to an even simpler but usable scale.

Phonology

Consonants

The consonant inventory of Tuki Tiki includes 5 phonemes. Comparing with Toki Pona, the phoneme /s/ merged with /t/; /w/, /j/ merged with /k/, and /n/ merged with /l/. The small inventory allows for great allophonic variation. For example, /t/ may be palatalized as /ts/ or /s/ before /i/.

	Bilabial	Alveolar	Velar
Obstruent	p	t	k
Sonorant	m	l

Vowels

The vowel inventory of is a three-vowel system, /a/, /i/, /u/. /e/ merged with /i/, and /o/ with /u/.

	Front	Back
Close	i	u
Open	a

Stress

Stress, similarly to Toki Pona, is placed on the first syllable of the word. In phrases with more than one word, the second word often has the heavier stress.

Wordlist

The lexicon of Tuki Tiki is entirely derived from Toki Pona, with the words' semantic spaces expanded to compensate for its small size. For example, the word tu is derived from Toki Pona tu, but the semantic space is more similar to Toki Pona mute.

Word	titi pula	Part of speech	Meaning	Etymology
a	Template:Titi pula static	simple word	all, only, exist, true, ah	a
ala	Template:Titi pula static	simple word	no, not, nothing	ala
		connector	[question marker]
i	Template:Titi pula static	reference word	[object reference]	e
iku	Template:Titi pula static	simple word	thing, substance, object	ijo
ilu	Template:Titi pula static	simple word	tool, use, method, way	ilo
ka	Template:Titi pula static	simple word	being, person, creature, alive	jan
kati	Template:Titi pula static	simple word	plant, non-moving creature, leaf, page	kasi
ki	Template:Titi pula static	simple word	possible, able, maybe, can	ken
kiku	Template:Titi pula static	simple word	rock, hard, earth, ground, land, place	kiwen
ku	Template:Titi pula static	simple word	air, gas, spirit, feeling, vibe, sound	kon
la	Template:Titi pula static	reference word	[context reference]	la
lapi	Template:Titi pula static	simple word	calm, rest, fuzzy, dim, inactive, cold	lape
li	Template:Titi pula static	simple word	this, that; him, her, them, it	li, ni
		reference word	[subject reference]: he, she, they, it, that
lika	Template:Titi pula static	simple word	line, stick, limb	linja
lili	Template:Titi pula static	simple word	little	lili
liti		archaic word	cold, freeze, chill, inactive, resting, dim	lete
lu	Template:Titi pula static	connector	[conjunction, preposition]	lon
lupa	Template:Titi pula static	simple word	hole, box, room, mouth, inside	lupa
mi	Template:Titi pula static	simple word	me, my, us, our	mi
		reference word	[subject reference]: I, we
muku	Template:Titi pula static	simple word	eat, food, tasty, sweet, pleasant	moku
muti	Template:Titi pula static	simple word	fun, play, culture, art	musi
paka	Template:Titi pula static	simple word	break, destroy, violence, conflict	pakala
pali	Template:Titi pula static	simple word	do, make, creation, structure	pali
puka	Template:Titi pula static	simple word	side, backside, vicinity	poka
pula	Template:Titi pula static	simple word	good	pona
taka	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	move, go, come, change, time	Template:Tp
tama	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	same, similar, also, stay the same	Template:Tp
tiki	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	circle, cycle, repeat, pattern, again, time	Template:Tp
tiku	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	high, tall, big, important, top, head, sky	Template:Tp
tila	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	you, your	Template:Tp
		Template:CellCategory	[subject reference]: you
tilu	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	water, liquid	Template:Tp
timi	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	what?	Template:Tp
tipi	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	front, face, vertical surface	Template:Tp
titi	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	image, symbol, mean, represent	Template:Tp
tu	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	a lot, much, many, amount, group	Template:Tp
tuki	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	language, make noise, talk, think	Template:Tp
tula	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	know, feel, learn, knowledge, document	Template:Tp
tulu	Template:Titi pula static	Template:CellCategory	sun, light, warm, colour, energy	Template:Tp
uli	Template:Titi pula static	simple word	want, need, force, goal, direction	wile
upi	Template:Titi pula static	simple word	new, fresh, begin, start, cause	open

Writing systems

Glyphs in titi pula. Yellow glyphs are taken directly from sitelen pona, the logography of Toki Pona. Orange glyphs are based on it but modified, and pink glyphs are completely original.

Besides the Latin script, the most common way of writing the language is with the logographic writing system titi pula, inspired by sitelen pona. As of February 2024, there are six font families with support for it.

Sample text

The following text is the translation of the Tower of Babel, translated by ka Tumu.

ka a li tuki tama. ka li taka lu kiku Tilala li tiki lu li.
tiki la ka li tuki i li: "taka. mi pali i kiku mi tulu i li."
ka li ilu i kiku i tilu. pali kiku la ka li tuki i li: "taka. mi pali i kiku i lupa tiku. mi uli ala taka lu kiku tu, la mi tu mi uli i titi tama."
tuki li la ka tiku li taka lu kiku li tula i kiku i lupa. ka tiku li tuki i li: "ka a li tu tama li tuki tama. li upi a uli ka. uli ka la a li ki. taka. mi taka lu kiku mi tu i tuki ka."
tiku li taka i ka a lu kiku a. ka li ki ala pali i lupa tiku.
kiku li li titi Papala lu upi li: tiku li tu i tuki i ka lu kiku a.

External links

• Improved grammar
• Grammar
• Wordlist
• Wordlist (in Toki Pona)
• Texts
• Cheat sheet