Toki Pona

Toki Pona
toki pona
The Toki Pona logo, presenting the words toki pona written in sitelen pona
Pronunciation[ˈtoki ˈpona]
Created bySonja Lang
Date2001
Setting and usageTesting principles of minimalism, the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis and pidgins
Users500 ~ 5000 (2021)[1]
Purpose
Constructed language, combining elements of the subgenres personal language and philosophical language
Latin script
sitelen pona (logographic)
sitelen sitelen (logographic with an alphasyllabary for foreign words); and numerous other community-made scripts
luka pona, toki pona luka
SourcesA posteriori language, with elements of English, Tok Pisin, Finnish, Georgian, Dutch, Acadian French, Esperanto, Serbo-Croatian and Chinese
Language codes
ISO 639-3tok
Glottologtoki1239
IETFtok
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Toki Pona (toki pona,[a] translated as the language of good; IPA: [ˈtoki ˈpona] (listenⓘ); English: /ˈtoʊki ˈpoʊnə/) is a philosophical artistic constructed language designed for its small vocabulary, simplicity, and ease of acquisition. It was created by Canadian linguist Sonja Lang to simplify her thoughts and communication. The first drafts were published online in 2001, while the complete form was published in the 2014 book Toki Pona: The Language of Good (known as pu). Lang also released a supplementary dictionary, the Toki Pona Dictionary (known as ku), in July 2021, describing the language as used by its community of speakers. In 2024, a third book was released, a Toki Pona adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, written in sitelen pona.

Toki Pona is an isolating language with only 14 phonemes and an underlying feature of minimalism. It focuses on simple, near-universal concepts to maximize expression from very few words. In Toki Pona: The Language of Good, Lang presents around 120 words, while the later Toki Pona Dictionary lists 137 "essential" words and a number of less-used ones.[b] Its words are easy to pronounce across language backgrounds, which allows it to serve as a bridge of sorts for people of different cultures. However, it was not created as an international auxiliary language. Partly inspired by Taoist philosophy, the language is designed to help users concentrate on basic things and to promote positive thinking, in accordance with the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis. Despite the small vocabulary, speakers can understand and communicate, mainly relying on context, combinations of words, and expository sentences to express more specific meanings.

After its initial creation, a small community of speakers developed in the early 2000s. While activity mainly takes place online in chat rooms, on social media, and in other online groups, there have been a few organized in-person meetups.

  1. ^ van der Meulen, Spencer; et al. (Toki Pona community). "Request for New Language Code Element in ISO 639-3" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2023-07-06. Retrieved 2023-11-16.
  2. ^ a b Blahuš, Marek (November 2011). Fiedler, Sabine (ed.). "Toki Pona: eine minimalistische Plansprache" [Toki Pona: A Minimalistic Planned Language] (PDF). Interlinguistische Informationen (in German). 18. Berlin: 51–55. ISSN 1432-3567. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-06-27. Retrieved 2019-01-08.
  3. ^ Rogers, Steven D. (2011). "Part I: Made-Up Languages – Toki pona". A Dictionary of Made-Up Languages. United States of America: Adams Media. ISBN 978-1440528170.
  4. ^ "Classic Word List (Improved!)". tokipona.net. Archived from the original on 2018-10-30. Retrieved 2019-01-07.
  5. ^ Morin, Roc (2015-07-15). "How to Say (Almost) Everything in a Hundred-Word Language". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on 2022-07-12. Retrieved 2019-08-01.
  6. ^ Roberts, Siobhan (2007-07-09). "Canadian has people talking about lingo she created". The Globe and Mail. Archived from the original on 2017-03-12. Retrieved 2017-03-10.
  7. ^ Lang 2021, pp. 22–23.
  8. ^ Lang 2021, back cover.


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