Toki Pona

Toki Pona was invented by Sonja Elen Kisa and first published online in 2001. It is a simple pidgin-like language based on universal human experience designed to express as much as possible with relatively few sounds and words. The name toki pona means "good language" or "simple language".

Toki Pona has only 14 basic sounds chosen to be easy to pronounce for anybody, regardless of their linguistic background. The 118 basic words can, in theory, be combined together to make over 470,000 compound words. Most of the words have several meanings and context helps to determine which particular meaning is intended.

Toki Pona words come from various languages, including English, Esperanto, Finnish, Acadian French, Croatian, Japanese, Georgian, Lojban, Dutch, Tongan, Tok Pisin, Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese and Welsh.

Toki Pona pronunciation (kalama)

Toki Pona pronunciation

Notes

n = [ŋ] at the end of a syllable, [n] elsewhere
The first syllable of a word is stressed
Capital letters are only used for proper names of people and places

Sample text in Toki Pona

ijo li moku e mi.
mi wile pakala.
pimeja li tawa insa kon mi.
jan ala li ken sona e pilin ike mi.
toki musi o, sina jan pona mi wan taso.
telo pimeja ni li telo loje mi, li ale mi.
tenpo ale la pimeja li lon.
wan taso

Translation

I am devoured.
I must destroy.
Darkness fills my soul.
No one can understand my suffering.
O poetry! My only friend.
This ink is my blood, is my life.
And Darkness shall reign forevermore.
alone - a poem from: http://www.tokipona.org/angst.html

Longer sample text (Tower of Babel)

Links

The Official Toki Pona website (in Toki Pona, English and Esperanto)
http://www.tokipona.org

Information about Toki Pona
http://bknight0.myweb.uga.edu/toki/

Online Toki Pona lessons
http://toki.co.nr/lesson/lesson0.html

Toki Pona Yahoo group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tokipona/

Other languages written with the Latin alphabet

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