Toki Pona

Toki Pona ("good speech"/"good language") is a relatively famous a priori conlang which was created by Sonja Lang in 2001. It is remarkable for the fact that it only has 14 phonemes and approximately 123 root words. The language is "designed to shape the thought processes of its users, in the style of the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis in Zen-like fashion". Almost all definite nouns are "foreign words", except the three books on/in Toki Pona published by Sonja: 2014's Toki Pona: The Language of Good (referred to as pu), 2021's Toki Pona Dictionary (referred to as ku), and 2024's adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (referred to as su).

The ISO 639-3 code "tok" was adopted in January 2022.

Design

Toki Pona is a minimalist language (sometimes called a "minilang"), designed to be unnaturally small. Like a pidgin, it focuses on simple concepts and elements that are near-universal among cultures. It draws its vocabulary from a wide variety of global languages (and even some conlangs), in order to be equally approaching from any starting point. The phonology is designed to be leanable by the most number of people. Toki Pona is also a philosophical language, inspired by Taoist philosophy. It was made help users concentrate on basic things and to promote positive thinking, in accordance with the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis.

Another aim of the language is for the speakers to become aware of the present moment and pay more attention to the surroundings and the words people use. According to its author, it is meant to be "fun and cute". Although it was not intended as an international auxiliary language, a worldwide online community uses it for communication.

Phonology

Toki Pona has nine consonants (/p, t, k, s, m, n, l, j, w/) and five vowels (/a, e, i, o, u/). Stress falls on the initial syllable of a word, and it is marked by an increase in loudness, length, or pitch. There are no diphthongs, vowel hiatus, contrasting vowel length, consonant clusters (except those starting with the nasal coda), or tones. Both its sound inventory and phonotactics are compatible with the majority of human languages, and are therefore readily accessible.

Consonants

	Labial	Coronal	Dorsal
Nasal	m	n
Stop	p	t	k
Fricative		s
Approximant	w	l	j

Vowels

	Front	Back
High	i	u
Mid	e	o
Low	a

The first syllable of a word follows the form (C)V(N), i.e. an optional consonant, a vowel, and an optional final nasal. Subsequent syllables follow the same form, except that the leading consonant is required. Syllables can thus be CV, CVN, V, or VN. Nasals may assimilate to place of articulation of the following consonant.

Orthography

Fourteen Latin letters — a, e, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, s, t, u, w — are used to write the language. These mirror IPA. Capital initials are used to mark proper nouns, while Toki Pona roots are always written with lowercase letters, even when they start a sentence.

Many Toki Pona-alternative writing systems have been developed, but the most successful is sitelen pona, and the second is sitelen sitelen. They both assign one hieroglyph per Toki Pona word.

Grammar

Toki Pona's word order is subject–verb–object. The word li introduces predicates, and the word e introduces direct objects. Modifiers follow their head.

From an English perspective, most words can be multiple parts of speech. More productive categories for Toki Pona words are: content words, and particles. Within these two overall categories, the follow parts of speech are used:

• preposition - A content word that can introduce a prepositional phrase when other content words follow it. Its preposition sense may have a different meaning from its general content word sense. In standard Toki Pona, prepositional phrases are not marked with any particle.
• preverb - A content word that can be placed before the main verb of a sentence (or before another preverb). Its preverb sense may have a different meaning from its general content word sense. Preverbs generally make distinctions in grammatical mood or aspect. In standard Toki Pona, preverbs are not marked with any particle (see Preverb marking).
• name or proper adjective - A content word that represents a name or loanword. In standard Toki Pona, a name is a modifier that requires a common content word before it, instead of being a proper noun. It is specially marked depending on the writing system: capitalized in Latin letters , written in a cartouche in sitelen pona, and written as syllable glyphs in a cartouche in sitelen sitelen.
• number - A content word that expresses a numeric value. Its number sense may have a different meaning from its general content word sense. In a well-known number system, adjacent numbers are added up instead of acting as modifiers.
• semiparticle - A type of word that acts like a particle, but has semantic value (meaning) or can also be used as a content word.
• interjection - A type of word or phrase that is used outside of a full sentence, as an exclamation or phatic expression.

Toki Pona has more complicated sentence structures too. Prepositional phrases follow the objects, and la ends a phrase or clause that comes before the subject to add additional context.

Complete Vocabulary

a akesi ala alasa ale or ali anpa ante anu apeja awen e en epiku esun ijo ike ilo insa jaki jan jasima jelo jo kala kalama kama kasi ken kepeken kijetesantakalu kili kin kipisi kiwen ko kokosila kon ku kule kulupu kute la lanpan lape laso lawa leko len lete li lili linja linluwi lipu loje lon luka lukin lupa ma majuna mama mani meli meso mi mije misikeke moku moli monsi monsuta mu mun musi mute n namako nanpa nasa nasin nena ni nimi noka o oko olin ona open pakala pake pali palisa pan pana pi pilin pimeja pini pipi poka poki pona powe pu sama seli selo seme sewi sijelo sike sin sina sinpin sitelen soko sona soto soweli su suli suno supa suwi tan taso tawa teje telo tenpo toki tomo tonsi tu unpa uta utala walo wan waso wawa weka wile

External Links

• Toki Pona on Wikipedia (live web)
• Toki Pona's home page (live web)

This article is part of a series on Engineered languages. Arithmographic languages: Characteristica universalis Logical languages: AllNoun * Ithkuil * Loglan * Lojban * X-1 Philosophical languages: Alwato * An Essay towards a Real Character * Ars signorum * Ro * Toki Pona * Ygyde Others: Altllamiac * Briefscript * Pasetok * Speedtalk