# Toki Pona/Printable version

The current, editable version of this book is available in Wikibooks, the open-content textbooks collection, at
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Toki_Pona

# Demographic information
## Name of Language

In Toki Pona, the language refers to itself as "toki pona" which translates to "The Language of Good." It is abbreviated as tp, and is usually written in lower case according to the conventions of the language.

## Ethnology

The people who use Toki Pona are called users, since they generally do not speak it casually. This page focuses on the community of people that speaks the language, whether casually or formally.

## Demography

The language is used by constructed language fans, almost entirely in written messages across the internet. These fans are geographically spread across North and South America, Europe, Russia, Australia, Malaysia and Japan. Of these, Canada, the US and East and West Europe are most heavily represented. There is a notable lack of Toki Pona users in China, South East Asia and Africa.

## Genetic Affiliation

Toki Pona is a relatively new constructed language created in 2001. Constructed languages by definition do not evolve from an existing natural language, instead being created by an individual or group. As an a posteriori language, it draws vocabulary and grammar from other world languages. Toki Pona's grammatical structure is most similar to that of the Indo-European languages, but it displays some Japonic elements as well.

## Previous Research

Toki Pona has been referenced in various journals. Because the language is small and well developed, some researchers opt to use it for linguistic developments in lieu of a custom constructed language for the purpose of experimentation.

## The sociolinguistic situation

Toki Pona's main community is online, so it lacks many features one would expect of naturally created creole or pidgin languages (a language based on the mixture of two or more language's speakers). In this community, most speakers do not share common interests, rather having joined the community as language, constructed language, and linguistics enthusiasts. This group contrasts a true pidgin or creole, both of which usually arise from a situation where a group of individuals is forced to quickly learn to communicate with a dominant, linguistically differing group.

## Dialects

Toki Pona exhibits no formal or documented dialects apart from the various proposed vocabulary extensions, which receive mixed usage. Individuals who speak the language may have their own idiolect, or personal way of speaking, but these types of dialects do not extend over large groups of speakers.

# Morphological typology
### Morphological Typology

toki pona is an isolation language. The morphological processes are limited to possible clitics. No content words inflect.
"A bound morpheme is a morpheme that must be attached to some other morpheme to be integrated naturally into a discourse." 1997 Payne

#### Bound Morphemes

The following words cannot stand alone:
* pi – a variety of meanings, including "of", "has", or a logical grouping operator
* e – accusative clitic
* li – verb phrase marker
* lon, sama, kepeken, tan, tawa – These are the prepositions.
"A clitic is bound morpheme that functions at a phrasal or clausal level, but which binds phonologically to some other word, known as the host." 1997 Payne

#### More bound clitics

The particles pi, e and the prepositions are clitics that consistently have the same host. The pi always precedes a noun and no other word can go between the pi and the noun without changing the sense of the phrase. This is also true for prepositions. The pi and propositions apply to the entire following phrase.
How bound is pi? One test is to examine how pi reacts to conjunctions.
I saw the Chinese animals.
? mi lukin e soweli pi telo en ma. ? mi lukin e soweli pi ma en telo. I saw the animal of the land and sea.
The specs to date do not make it clear if conjuncted modifiers or pi-complements are legal.
How bound is e? en doesn't move e from its head noun, but anu does. mi lukin e soweli anu waso. mi lukin e waso anu soweli.

#### Less bound clitics- Grammatical Particles

Auxiliary or serial verbs may go between li and the head verb. li marks the beginning of a verb phrase that continues until the e or first preposition.
Depending on how you parse the phrases with compound prepositions (lon + geographic word), lon can be split from its head noun.
soweli li lape lon anpa supa. The animal sleeps under the bed.

#### Periphrasal Patterns

Because toki pona is strongly isolating, the equivalent of derivational operations do not involve binding morphemes. This doesn't mean that these processes don't exist, but instead they are clausal or discourse level operations.
There isn't any bound infixation, but at the phrasal level, plural markers can be inserted in the middle of the phrase.
tomo pi telo nasa / tomo mute pi telo nasa: house(s) of strange water/houses of strange water
jan pona / jan pona mute ? jan mute pona: good person(s)/good people
Stems or base words are never modified. Reduplication has no special meaning.
Note that singularity or plurality is not the default. "tomo" can both mean one building or multiple buildings.

### Head/Dependent Marking

It isn't clear if the head or the dependents are being marked.
lipu jan The man's book.
lipu mute jan The man's books.
lipu mute pi jan mute The people's books.

# Grammatical categories
## Nouns

Nouns are nouns primarily on account of where they appear in a sentence. Almost any content word can be used as a noun.
Individual nouns exhibit no internal structure. All noun operations with analogies in other languages are done at the noun phrase level.
The noun phrases has the following basic structure.
noun modifier possessor pi noun phrase
The following words are the pronouns
mi, sina These pronouns are worth considering separately because their meaning is resolved by context and doesn't refer to anything mentioned earlier. Both of these nouns at times take modifiers, usually mute, tu, or rarely suli.
ona This pronoun can be anaphora for anything mentioned, to be mentioned or in context. Unlike languages like Chinese, which use a similar pronoun, this word can't be dropped entirely. In Chinese, when the subject of the anaphora is clear, not only does the gender and number not need to be mentioned, the pronoun doesn't need to be mentioned. In toki pona, subject can never be dropped and objects usually are not dropped.
ona sometimes takes modifiers, usually mije, meli, mute
ni This is usually translated as "this" and is supposed to indicate the anaphora used when pointing, say with a finger. Because toki pona is almost never used in face to face situations, the word is used much the same as ona, except that ni can refer to an entire sentence, where as ona can't and primarily refers to a noun phrase.
* * li lukin. It is always wrong to drop a subject.
* ? jan li lukin. The man sees (something). This may be wrong if the speaker meant a transitive sense of the word.
* jan li lukin e ijo. The man sees something. This is always correct.
Repeated Head Nouns When a head noun is repeated, it refers back to an earlier mention. These anaphora strategy can create ambiguity if it isn't clear that the repeated head noun is the same or a new player on the stage.
waso pi tawa wawa li lon ma Oselija. waso li suli li ken tawa ala kon. The emu is in Australia. It is large and flightless.

## Verbs

The verb phrase appears immediately after the li in a sentence.
Verbs have no internal structure. All verb processes are dealt with at the phrase level.
Verbs are intransitive, transitive, prepositional, and those that take unmarked complements. All verbs can increase their valence by adding prepositional phrases.
Intransitive. jan li suli. The man is making things big. | The man is big.
Transitive. jan li suli e kasi. The man is making plants big.
Predicative Prepositions of Motion. Most predicate constructions convey a static situation. The tawa prepositional phrase conveys a sense of motion.
* jan li tawa ma ante. The man went to another country.
Prepositional. When prepositional phrases are used with a direct object complement, usually with tawa or lon, their meaning changes to mean move and place/affix respectively.
* jan li tawa e soweli tawa ma ante. The man moves the animal to a different country.
* jan li lon e ilo musi lon kasi kiwen anpa. The man places toys under the tree.
Verbs Taking Unmarked Complements The verb of talking are the most likely to be used this way, although it is more common that the complement be treated as a direct object.
* mi toki pi pali mi. I speak about my work.
* (more commonly) mi toki e pali mi
Serial/Auxiliary Verbs jan li ken pali. The man can work.
* see mood for more on this
Serial verbs go between li and the head verb.

## Verb Operations

Verb operations are entirely done at the lexical or periphrastic level.
verb agreement/concord. The verb phrase does not change to agree with the subject.
* jan li pali. The man works.
* jan mute li pali. The men work.
* jan mute li pali mute. The men work a lot.
* jan mute li pali mute e tomo. The men work on the houses a lot.
semantic role markers/applicatives. N/A ?
valence increasing devices. Valence can be increase by complementing a verb phrase with an unmarked noun phrase, a direct object or a prepositional phrase. The only thing barring a verb from taking a direct object or any of the prepositional phrases is deciding what those sentences might mean. Unmarked noun phrases are rare.
valence decreasing devices. Subjects are always obligatory. The direct object might be obligatory, it isn't clear yet.
* 1) mi moli. I die.
* 2) mi moli e jan. I kill someone.
It isn't clear if sentence 1) can mean "I kill someone"
Reflexive and reciprocals can't dispense with the direct object. It can be replaced with "sama" as anaphora.
* jan li lukin e sama. The man saw himself.
* meli en mije li lukin e sama. The man and the women saw each other.
tense/aspect/mode Tense is handled with la fragments, which are noun phrases followed by la, using the words pini, kama, ni for past, future and now respectively. The la fragment can also use a characteristic activity or quality of such a time to mark the time or tense.
tenpo ni la jan li pali. Now the men are working. tenpo pali la jan li pali ala. The men weren't working during their normal hours of work.
aspect is sometimes expressed through modifiers to the main verb.
? jan li pali pini e pali ona. The man completed his work.
mood is usually expressed through auxiliary verbs which precede the main verb.
* jan li ken pali. The man can work.
* jan li wile pali. The man wants to work.
* jan li lukin pali. The man tries to work.
mood, in some cases, can be expressed with adverbs which go after the verb.
* jan li lape ken. The man might sleep.
subordination/nominalization By placing a prototypical verb in a noun phrase, it means "such activity." or the English "ing." There are some set phrases with the prototypical object as a modifier compliment. There are also set phrases with a noun and a prototypical verb in modifier position.
* pana sona - teaching "giving knowledge"
* pana pi sona nasa - teaching weird stuff "giving weird knowledge"
* in a full sentence: olin soweli li pona - loving animals is good.
verb negation Verbs are negated by placing ala after the verb.

## Amounts and Numbers

There are many competing number systems, none of which are in wide usage. There are a few official ones The most common is 0/1/2/5/20/100:
* ala - 0
* wan - 1
* tu - 2
* luka - 5
* mute - 20
* ale | ali - 100
There are also a couple of approximant amounts. These are extremely common and appear more often than specific numbers.
* lili - few, little, not many
* mute - many, multiple, several
* ale | ali - all, every, whole; bountiful, plentiful

## Adverbs

Adverbs are rarely used. The most common are suli, lili, wawa, mute, ken, and ala. Adverbs go directly after the verb.
jan li pali wawa. The man built fast. jan li pali wawa e tomo. The man built the house fast.
Instead of putting the adverb right after the verb. You can put it at the beginning followed by the word, "la."
wawa la mi tawa. quickly, I moved. ken la mi lape. possibly, I will sleep.

## La
# Constituent order typology

Toki Pona is an SVO, nominative-accusative language. There are no signs of ergativity of any sort. It is a rigid constituent order language that leaves very few phrases free with respect to word order.

## Noun Phrase

Modifiers can be arranged in any order, but the order is significant. Later modifiers affect the whole preceding phrase.
Modifier Order sometimes doesn't significantly affect meaning.
* 1) soweli suli wawa - a powerful large animal (a large animal that is also powerful)
* 2) soweli wawa suli - a large powerful animal (a powerful animal that is also large)

## Adpositional Phrases

Toki Pona has prepositions. They are closer to clitics or cases because they attach before the head noun and nothing else can go between the preposition and the head noun.

## Comparatives

Toki Pona uses discourse to express comparatives. It doesn't have a construction that easily matches the standard-marker-quality pattern found in some languages.
soweli li suli mute. waso li suli lili. The animal is very large. The bird is 'small-ly' large. I.e., The animal is larger than the bird.

## Question particles and question words

Yes/no questions can be asked either by using the V-ala-V pattern:
* jan li moli ala moli e jan utala? Did the man kill the soldier?
* jan li suli ala suli? Is the man great?
Or by adding "anu seme?" ("Or what?") at the end:
* jan li moli e jan utala anu seme? Did the man kill the soldier?
* jan li suli anu seme? Is the man great?
seme is the question word and it appears where the unknown piece of information would appear.
* 1) seme li moli e jan? Who killed the man?
* 2) jan li moli e seme? The man killed who?
* 3) jan li moli seme e jan? How did the man kill the other?
* 4) ? jan li seme e jan? What did he do to the other man?
* 5) tenpo seme la jan li moli e jan? When did the man kill the other?
* 6) jan li moli e jan kepeken seme? What did the man kill the other with?
There is no obvious pattern in predicate sentences.
* 1) jan li seme?
* 2) seme li jan?

## Greenberg's Parameters

* Main clause V-O
* adpositions prepositions
* genitive and head noun - N-G
* head noun and modifier N-M
* relative clauses and head noun- Not entirely applicable, but the sentence with the head noun is first and is followed by the sentence that describes the other noun. jan li lukin e ni: jan li pali.
* comparatives- Not applicable
* Inflected Auxiliary- not entirely applicable, but Aux-V
* Question particles- No question particle.
* Question words- Not sure.
* affixes - Not entirely applicable, but clitics precede their phrases.
So with few exceptions in the cases where Toki Pona doesn't have the exact same sort of construction, Toki Pona fits the patterns of Greenburg's parameters.

# ModOne
### Phonology

Toki Pona is a language of very minimal sounds, in order to be easily pronounced by the greatest number of people. Its consonants lack voicing, gemination, and clusters, while vowels are only monophthongs and do not register length.

#### Vowels

In Toki Pona, you use the same five vowels, but they have only one strict pronunciation, similar to Spanish or Japanese vowels.
| Vowel | Pronounced Like... |
| a | father |
| e | met |
| i | peel |
| o | bone |
| u | mood |

#### Consonants

Excluding j, the phonetic sounds of the nine consonants used in Toki Pona are the same as English, and there is flexibility in how one can pronounce it.
| Consonant | Pronounced like... |
| k | kill or gills |
| l | let |
| m | man |
| n | near |
| p | poke or boat |
| s | salt or zoo |
| t | talk or dog |
| w | water |
| *j | yet |

# WordTpEn
## Official Word List

Total 123 words from the official word list in the book at .

### a

    interj ah, ha, uh, oh, ooh, aw, well (emotion word)

### akesi

    n reptile, amphibian

### ala

    mod no, not, none, un-
    n nothing, negation, zero
    interj no!

### alasa

    vt gather, hunt, forage

### ale, ali

    n everything, anything, life, universe
    mod all, every, complete, whole

### anpa

    n bottom, lower part, under, below, floor, beneath
    mod low, lower, bottom, down, lowly, humble, dependant

### ante

    n difference
    mod different
    conj otherwise, or else
    vt change, alter, modify

### anu

    conj or

### awen

    vi stay, wait, remain, stop
    vt keep
    mod remaining, stationary, permanent, sedentary

### e

    sep (introduces a direct object)

### en

    conj and (used to coordinate head nouns)

### esun

    n market, shop, business, trading, selling, buying

### ijo

    n thing, something, stuff, anything, object
    mod of something
    vt objectify

### ike

    mod bad, negative, wrong, evil, overly complex, (figuratively) unhealthy
    interj oh dear! woe! alas!
    n negativity, badness, evil
    vt to make bad, to worsen, to have a negative effect upon
    vi to be bad, to suck
    [sounds like icky]

### ilo

    n tool, device, machine, thing used for a specific purpose

### insa

    n inside, inner world, centre, stomach
    mod inner, internal
    [inside]

### jaki

    mod dirty, gross, filthy
    n dirt, pollution, garbage, filth
    vt pollute, dirty
    interj ew! yuck!
    [yucky]

### jan

    n person, people, human, being, somebody, anybody
    mod human, somebody's, personal, of people
    vt personify, humanize, personalize

### jelo

    mod yellow, light green
    [yellow]

### jo

    vt have, contain
    n having
    kama receive, get, take, obtain

### kala

    n fish, sea creature

### kalama

    n sound, noise, voice
    vi make noise
    vt sound, ring, play (an instrument)

### kama

    vi come, become, arrive, happen, pursue actions to arrive to (a certain state), manage to, start to
    n event, happening, chance, arrival, beginning
    mod coming, future
    vt bring about, summon
    [come up]

### kasi

    n plant, leaf, herb, tree, wood

### ken

    vi can, is able to, is allowed to, may, is possible
    n possibility, ability, power to do things, permission
    vt make possible, enable, allow, permit
    cont it is possible that

### kepeken

    vt use
    prep with

### kili

    n fruit, vegetable, mushroom

### kin

    mod also, too, even, indeed (emphasizes the word(s) before it)

### kipisi

    n part, partition
    vt split, cut, divide

### kiwen

    mod hard, solid, stone-like, made of stone or metal
    n hard thing, rock, stone, metal, mineral, clay

### ko

    n semi-solid or squishy substance, e.g. paste, powder, gum

### kon

    n air, wind, smell, soul
    mod air-like, ethereal, gaseous

### kule

    n colour, paint
    mod colourful
    vt colour, paint

### kulupu

    n group, community, society, company, people
    mod communal, shared, public, of the society
    [group]

### kute

    vt listen, hear
    mod auditory, hearing

### la

    sep (between adverb or phrase of context and sentence)

### lape

    n, vi sleep, rest
    mod sleeping, of sleep

### laso

    mod blue, blue-green

### lawa

    n head, mind
    mod main, leading, in charge
    vt lead, control, rule, steer

### len

    n clothing, cloth, fabric

### lete

    n cold
    mod cold, uncooked
    vt cool down, chill

### li

    sep "(between any subject except mi and sina and its verb; also used to introduce a new verb for the same subject)"

### lili

    mod small, little, young, a bit, short, few, less
    vt reduce, shorten, shrink, lessen

### linja

    n long, very thin, floppy thing, e.g. string, rope, hair, thread, cord, chain

### lipu

    n flat and bendable thing, written text or information

### loje

    mod red

### lon

    prep be (located) in/at/on
    vi be there, be present, be real/true, exist, be awake

### luka

    n hand, arm

### lukin

    vt see, look at, watch, read
    vi look, watch out, pay attention
    mod visual(ly)
    [looking]

### lupa

    n hole, orifice, window, door
    [sounds like loop]

### ma

    n land, earth, country, (outdoor) area

### mama

    n parent, mother, father
    mod of the parent, parental, maternal, fatherly
    [sounds like momma]

### mani

    n money, material wealth, currency, dollar, capital
    [money]

### meli

    n woman, female, girl, wife, girlfriend
    mod female, feminine, womanly
    [Mary]

### mi

    n I, we
    mod my, our
    [me]

### mije

    n man, male, boy, husband, boyfriend
    mod male, masculine, manly

### moku

    n food, meal
    vt eat, drink, swallow, ingest, consume

### moli

    n death
    vi die, be dead
    vt kill
    mod dead, deadly, fatal

### monsi

    n back, rear end, butt, behind
    mod back, rear

### mu

    interj woof! meow! moo! etc. (animal noise)
    [moo]

### mun

    n moon
    mod lunar
    [moon]

### musi

    n fun, playing, game, recreation, art, entertainment
    mod artful, fun, recreational
    vi play, have fun
    vt amuse, entertain

### mute

    mod many, very, much, several, a lot, abundant, numerous, more
    n amount, quantity
    vt make many or much
    [multi]

### namako

    n food additive, accessory, something extra
    vt season, embellish, stimulate

### nanpa

    n number
    oth -th (ordinal numbers)
    [number]

### nasa

    mod silly, crazy, foolish, drunk, strange, stupid, weird
    vt drive crazy, make weird

### nasin

    n way, manner, custom, road, path, doctrine, system, method

### nena

    n bump, nose, hill, mountain, button

### ni

    mod this, that

### nimi

    n word, name

### noka

    n leg, foot

### o

    sep O (vocative or imperative)
    interj hey! (calling somebody's attention)

### oko

    n eye
    [similar to oculist]

### olin

    n love
    mod love
    vt to love (a person)

### ona

    n she, he, it, they
    mod her, his, its, their

### open

    vt open, turn on

### pakala

    n blunder, accident, mistake, destruction, damage, breaking
    vt screw up, fuck up, botch, ruin, break, hurt, injure, damage, spoil, ruin
    vi screw up, fall apart, break
    interj damn! fuck!

### pali

    n activity, work, deed, project
    mod active, work-related, operating, working
    vt do, make, build, create
    vi act, work, function

### palisa

    n long, mostly hard object, e.g. rod, stick, branch

### pan

    n grain, cereal

### pana

    vt give, put, send, place, release, emit, cause
    n giving, transfer, exchange

### pi

    sep of, belonging to

### pilin

    n feelings, emotion, heart
    vi feel
    vt feel, think, sense, touch
    [feeling]

### pimeja

    mod black, dark
    n darkness, shadows
    vt darken

### pini

    n end, tip
    mod completed, finished, past, done, ago
    vt finish, close, end, turn off

### pipi

    n bug, insect, spider

### poka

    n side, hip, next to
    prep in the accompaniment of, with
    mod neighbouring

### poki

    n container, box, bowl, cup, glass
    [box]

### pona

    n good, simplicity, positivity
    mod good, simple, positive, nice, correct, right
    interj great! good! thanks! OK! cool! yay!
    vt improve, fix, repair, make good
    [bonam]

### pu

    vi interact with the official toki pona book

### sama

    mod same, similar, equal, of equal status or position
    prep like, as, seem

### seli

    n fire, warmth, heat
    mod hot, warm, cooked
    vt heat, warm up, cook

### selo

    n outside, surface, skin, shell, bark, shape, peel

### seme

    oth what, which, wh- (question word)

### sewi

    n high, up, above, top, over, on
    mod superior, elevated, religious, formal

### sijelo

    n body, physical state

### sike

    n circle, wheel, sphere, ball, cycle
    mod round, cyclical

### sin

    mod new, fresh, another, more
    vt renew, renovate, freshen

### sina

    n you
    mod your

### sinpin

    n front, chest, torso, face, wall

### sitelen

    n picture, image
    vt draw, write

### sona

    n knowledge, wisdom, intelligence, understanding
    vt know, understand, know how to
    vi know, understand
    kama learn, study

### soweli

    n animal, especially land mammal, lovable animal

### suli

    mod big, tall, long, adult, important
    vt enlarge, lengthen
    n size

### suno

    n sun, light

### supa

    n horizontal surface, e.g furniture, table, chair, pillow, floor

### suwi

    n candy, sweet food
    mod sweet, cute
    vt sweeten
    [sweet]

### tan

    prep from, by, because of, since
    n origin, cause

### taso

    mod only, sole
    conj but
    [that's all]

### tawa

    prep to, in order to, towards, for, until
    vi go to, walk, travel, move, leave
    n movement, transportation
    mod moving, mobile
    vt move, displace
    [towards]

### telo

    n water, liquid, juice, sauce
    vt water, wash with water

### tenpo

    n time, period of time, moment, duration, situation

### toki

    n language, talking, speech, communication
    mod talking, verbal
    vt say
    vi talk, chat, communicate
    interj hello! hi!

### tomo

    n indoor constructed space, e.g. house, home, room, building
    mod urban, domestic, household
tonsi
n non-binary, transgender, non-conforming

### tu

    mod two
    n duo, pair
    vt double, separate/cut/divide in two
    [two]

### unpa

    n sex, sexuality
    mod erotic, sexual
    vt have sex with, sleep with, fuck
    vi have sex

### uta

    n mouth
    mod oral

### utala

    n conflict, disharmony, competition, fight, war, battle, attack, blow, argument, physical or verbal violence
    vt hit, strike, attack, compete against

### walo

    mod white, light (colour)
    n white thing or part, whiteness, lightness
    [sounds like wall, which is often white]

### wan

    mod one, a
    n unit, element, particle, part, piece
    vt unite, make one
    [one]

### waso

    n bird, winged animal

### wawa

    n energy, strength, power
    mod energetic, strong, fierce, intense, sure, confident
    vt strengthen, energize, empower

### weka

    mod away, absent, missing
    n absence
    vt throw away, remove, get rid of

### wile

    vt to want, need, wish, have to, must, will, should
    n desire, need, will
    mod necessary

### Parts of Speech

* n head noun
* mod modifier (adjective or adverb)
* sep separator
* vt verb, transitive (normally used with e)
* vi verb, intransitive
* interj interjection
* prep quasi-preposition
* conj conjunction
* kama compound verb preceded by kama
* cont context word used before la
* oth special, other word