The Toki Pona logo, presenting the words toki pona written in sitelen pona
Pronunciation
[ˈtokiˈpona]
Created by
Sonja Lang
Date
2001
Setting and usage
Testing principles of minimalism, the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis and pidgins
Users
500 ~ 5000 (2021)[1]
Purpose
Constructed language, combining elements of the subgenres personal language and philosophical language
Writing system
Latin script; sitelen pona (logographic); sitelen sitelen (logographic with an alphasyllabary for foreign words); and numerous other community-made scripts
Signed forms
luka pona, toki pona luka
Sources
A posteriori language, with elements of English, Tok Pisin, Finnish, Georgian, Dutch, Acadian French, Esperanto, Serbo-Croatian and Chinese
Language codes
ISO 639-3
tok
Glottolog
toki1239
IETF
tok
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Toki Pona(rendered as toki pona[a] and often translated as 'the language of good';[b]IPA:[ˈtokiˈpona](listenⓘ); English: /ˈtoʊkiˈpoʊnə/) 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.
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 (referred to as pu), while the later Toki Pona Dictionary lists 137 "essential" words and a number of less-used ones (referred to as ku).[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]
^"Request for New Language Code Element in ISO 639-3" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2023-07-06. Retrieved 2023-11-16.
^ abcdCite error: The named reference blahus-2011a was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference rogers-2011a was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ abLang 2014, p. 125–134.
^ abcMorin, 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.
^ abcRoberts, 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.
^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.
^Lang 2014, p. 134.
^"Classic Word List (Improved!)". tokipona.net. Archived from the original on 2018-10-30. Retrieved 2019-01-07.
^ abLang 2021, p. 22–23.
^Lang 2021, back cover.
^Lang 2014, p. 10.
^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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TokiPona (rendered as tokipona and often translated as 'the language of good'; IPA: [ˈtokiˈpona] (listen); English: /ˈtoʊki ˈpoʊnə/) is a philosophical...
Sonja Lang (2021). TokiPona Dictionary. Tawhid. ISBN 978-0-9782923-6-2. "tokipona | toki! After a lot of demand for a sitelen pona glyph for the extinct...
un chrétien ("a Christian"). In the minimalistic constructed language TokiPona, there are no proper nouns, only proper adjectives and adverbs. A proper...
The King James Version reads, here, "…thou anointest my head with oil…" TokiPona is a philosophical artistic constructed language known for its small vocabulary...
known as PonaPONA number, an index for oil components Popular National Party (Tanzania) Pona Machaan Thirumbi Vandhan, 1954 Indian film TokiPona, a constructed...
Esperanto as one of their mother tongues" "2021 tokipona census". 2 June 2021. Lang, Sonja (2014). TokiPona: the Language of Good. Sonja Lang. ISBN 9780978292300...
constructed language TokiPona, a preverb is a class of words that can be placed at the start of the predicate in front of the verb. TokiPona preverbs have...
Lang, Sonja (2014). TokiPona: The Language of Good. Tawhid. ISBN 978-0-9782923-0-0. OCLC 921253340. Lang, Sonja (2021). TokiPona Dictionary. Illustrated...
is open, i.e. when it ends with a vowel (l i in 비 bi in this case). In TokiPona, the word e is used to mark accusative. Nota accusativi also exists in...
hello in TokiPona, a language created in 2001 Toki, a company founded by Rob Monster creating servers to be distributed to Africa and Asia Toki, a prehistoric...
Proto-Ukrainian, an aspect of the Old East Slavic language pu, the TokiPona name for the book TokiPona: The Language of Good "Pu", a song by Arca from Kick IIIII...
thought, as in George Orwell's Newspeak, or to simplify thought, as in TokiPona. However, linguists such as Steven Pinker argue that ideas exist independently...
near-synonymously, though more modern philosophical languages such as TokiPona are less likely to involve such an exalted claim of perfection. The axioms...
languages is to express deep meaning with very few parts. For instance, TokiPona is generally said to have around 120, 123, or 125 root words and 14 phonemes...
ஞாயிறு / ñāyiru [ɲaːjiru] 'Sunday' Alveolo-palatal. See Tamil phonology TokiPona Some speakers linja [ˈliɲ.(j)a] 'line' Tyap nyam [ɲam] 'animal' Ukrainian...
languages from more recent years with sizable user communities are Klingon, TokiPona and Interslavic. Modern Language Association Endangered language List...
movement for gender reform in Esperanto.) Ido Lingua Franca Nova Lojban TokiPona Creoles Haitian Creole Mauritian Creole Sango Papiamento language Dravidian...
obfuscation involved translating the plain text into the constructed language TokiPona. Asemic writing Automatic writing Beale ciphers Book of Soyga Codex Gigas...
teaching of other languages, such as German, Slovak, Swahili, Wolof or TokiPona. Since 1889 when La Esperantisto appeared, and soon other magazines in...
Haitian Creole." Courses have been created by enthusiasts to teach Klingon, TokiPona, and Esperanto, among other artificial languages. Classical languages...
company Now TV, being used in their adverts. The song has been covered in TokiPona by musician jan Usawi, as "kule mi". Saint Motel — SM004 — 7" vinyl single...
TOK may refer to: Tok Pisin, a creole language from Papua New Guinea TokiPona (ISO 639-3 code), a constructed language Barış Tok (born 1978), Turkish...