Toki Pona facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Toki Pona |
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| Created by | Sonja Lang |
| Date | 2001 |
| Setting and usage | testing principles of minimalism, the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis and pidgins |
| Users | more than 3.100 (2016) |
| Purpose |
constructed language, combining elements of the subgenres personal language, international auxiliary language and philosophical language
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| Sources | a posteriori language, with elements of English, Tok Pisin, Finnish, Georgian, Dutch, Acadian French, Esperanto, Croatian, Chinese |
Toki Pona (in Toki Pona it means good language or simple language) is a constructed (made-up) language. Sonja Lang (in past time Sonja Elen Kisa), a Canadian translator and linguist, made the language. It is based on simple ideas that are known to all cultures. It is not created to be an international auxiliary language (a language for communication between people speaking different languages). It is meant to test ideas about minimalism and pidgins. It is influenced by Taoist ideas. It has only 120 root words, although there is over 50,000 different possible combinations. Toki Pona relies very heavily on expressing ideas by using root words together. For example, jan pona means friend in Toki Pona (literally it means: good person).
Normally Toki Pona uses the Latin alphabet, but many Toki Pona speakers create other systems of writing for this language. There are some attempts to create a writing system based on pictograms, but they have not been very successful.
Example of text
Lord's Prayer (translated by Pije/Jopi):
mama pi mi mute o, sina lon sewi kon.
nimi sina li sewi.
ma sina o kama.
jan o pali e wile sina lon sewi kon en lon ma.
o pana e moku pi tenpo suno ni tawa mi mute.
o weka e pali ike mi. sama la mi weka e pali ike pi jan ante.
o lawa ala e mi tawa ike.
o lawa e mi tan ike.
tenpo ali la sina jo e ma e wawa e pona.
Amen.
Images for kids
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Body parts in Toki Pona
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Origin of the Toki Pona roots by language. Obsolete roots are not included
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Hand shapes of Signed Toki Pona
See also
In Spanish: Toki pona para niños
