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
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Toki Pona (rendered as toki pona[a] and often translated as 'the language of good';[b] IPA: [ˈtoki ˈpona] (listenⓘ); English: /ˈtoʊki ˈpoʊnə/) is a philosophical artistic constructed language known for its small vocabulary, simplicity, and ease of acquisition.[5] It was created by Sonja Lang (née Elen Kisa), a Canadian linguist and translator,[5][6] to simplify her thoughts and communication. The first drafts were published online in 2001,[2] while the complete form was published in the 2014 book Toki Pona: The Language of Good.[7][8] Lang also released a supplementary dictionary, the Toki Pona Dictionary, in July 2021, describing the language as used by its community of speakers. In January of 2024, a third book was released, titled "su" which is a Toki Pona adaptation of the Wizard of Oz story, written in Sitelen Pona. These three books are named pu, ku, and su respectively in Toki 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 (referred to as pu), Lang presents around 120 words, while the later Toki Pona Dictionary (referred to as ku) lists 137 "essential" words and a number of less-used ones.[c] Its words are easy to pronounce across language backgrounds, which allows it to serve as a bridge of sorts for people of different cultures.[12] 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.[6][13] 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 meetings.[2]

  1. ^ "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 c d Cite error: The named reference blahus-2011a was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference rogers-2011a was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ a b Lang 2014, p. 125–134.
  5. ^ a b c 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. ^ a b c 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. ^ Thomas, Simon (2018-03-27). "Exploring Toki Pona: do we need more than 120 words?". Oxford Dictionaries. Archived from the original on 2019-05-11. Retrieved 2019-02-03.
  8. ^ Lang 2014, p. 134.
  9. ^ "Classic Word List (Improved!)". tokipona.net. Archived from the original on 2018-10-30. Retrieved 2019-01-07.
  10. ^ a b Lang 2021, p. 22–23.
  11. ^ Lang 2021, back cover.
  12. ^ Lang 2014, p. 10.
  13. ^ Јовановић, Тијана (Tijana Jovanović) (2006-12-15). "Вештачки језици (Veštački jezici)" [Artificial languages]. Политикин Забавник (Politikin Zabavnik) (in Serbian) (2862). Archived from the original on 2007-06-10.


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