Notes on lipu pu
Seven years have passed since the first official book waspublished. As Toki Pona is a living language, Toki Pona: TheLanguage of Good must also be a living document. Let me sharesome clarifications, corrections and critiques.
p. 7“This is the way I use Toki Pona.” The first book serves as asnapshot and reference point of one key person’s way ofusing Toki Pona at one key moment in time. This foundation
is paired with the invitation on page 62. “Now the rest
depends on you. Go enjoy yourself. Create, play, and bepona!”
p. 11
In light of a commitment to non-ableist language, thechicken example should be corrected to ‘silly bird’ (wasonasa).
p. 17
In the book, words are taught using parts of speech andexample translations that are familiar to English-speaking
learners, e.g. nouns, adjectives, verbs. A deeper analysis ofToki Pona grammar reveals that a model with content words
and particles (among others) may be more appropriate or5accurate. For one example, search for “Toki Pona Analysis:
Parts of Speech” by u/pisceyo (kala kala) on Reddit.
p. 23
The word mi is introduced as meaning I, me, we. I would liketo emphasize that singularity is not the default in Toki Pona.
p. 23
At this point, meli and mije have been taught. A third word,
tonsi, has been created by the community of Toki Ponaspeakers in a grassroots project, and I support it. See thedictionary part of this book for definitions.
p. 25–27
While kute does also mean obey, other perception words likelukin can also be used for obeying, for example if theinformation was conveyed visually.
p. 28
Technically, the word pu describes the relationship andinteraction between a person (jan pu) and the book (lipu pu).
In informal usage, a number of people use pu as a name forthe book itself or the variety of Toki Pona presented in it.
p. 31–33
A few people form a yes-or-no question using intonation
alone, without adding anu seme or using the ala method.
Although this can occur spontaneously in some situations, I6

would not recommend it as the main way to form a yes-orno question, especially in writing.
In addition to the verb repetition method to answer ‘yes’, itis also very common to hear ‘lon’ with the meaning of ‘yes,that’s true’.
p. 34
In early years, kepeken served as both a preposition(without e) and as a transitive verb (with e). Later, an effort
was made to consolidate kepeken as only a preposition, i.e.
without e. Today, some people use kepeken e, although themajority use kepeken only as a preposition. There may bebenefits to either style.
Preposition style:o kepeken ala ilo ike. or o kepeken ilo ike ala.
Transitive verb style:o kepeken ala e ilo ike. or o kepeken e ilo ike ala.
Many people also use prepositions as nouns. For example:
mi sona ala e tan. I don’t know the reason.
mi toki e lon.
I say the truth.
p. 35
I personally use the preposition lon with a very wide
meaning. The example mi toki lon toki pona could also be
expressed as mi toki kepeken toki pona, and many Toki Pona7

speakers prefer this way. I also personally use lon whentalking ‘about’ something: mi toki lon kili. I’m talking aboutturnips.
p. 38
For ‘Chinese lady’ (meli Sonko), many people find it clearer tosay meli pi ma Sonko or meli tan ma Sonko or meli pi kulupu
Sonko. This avoids misunderstanding it as ‘a woman namedSonko’, because the primary interpretation of ‘[noun][Name]’ is ‘a [noun] named [Name]’.
p. 38
Correction: jan Epawan Linkan li tan ma Mewika.
p. 43–45
Although the particle pi is glossed as ‘of’, it is more accurate
to say that pi regroups modifiers. As the examples in lipu pu
show, it does not behave exactly the same way as theEnglish word ‘of’. It may be helpful to compare the functionof pi to the hyphen in English. For example, compare:pali jan wan
pali pi jan wan
waso kule tu
waso pi kule tu

one personal project
one-person project
two colourful birds
two-coloured birdAlso, a completely different way to use pi exists in thestructure A pi B en C. This is a very old way to use pi, which
8continues to be used by some people; however, many people
dislike using it. For example, linja pi ma en sewi is one way to
say horizon, and musi pi kiwen walo en kiwen pimeja is one way
to say chess.
p. 45
The proverbial scholar of Toki Pona also listens to the usageof the community.
p. 46–47
For those who yearn for a more sophisticated and robust
number system, I personally endorse the kijetesantakalubased system, innovated by soweli nata in alignment withthe values system of Toki Pona. See near the end of thisbook.
p. 48–50
Other examples of pre-verbs in usage include alasa, open,
pini and tawa:o alasa lukin e lipu.
mi open seli e pan.
sina pini moku e kili.
mi tawa moku e kala.

Try to read the document.
I started cooking rice.
You finished eating the kumquat.
I’ll go eat seafood.

p. 52
In my opinion, whether to use a comma before la, after la, orto not use a comma at all is a personal stylistic choice.
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p. 54The pu book introduces an oddity with how noka has
traditionally been used. It is much more common to use
noka as ‘leg, foot’ and anpa as ‘area below or under’.
p. 56
In pu style, the particle li can introduce a new verb for athird person subject, but in the case of mi or sina, one starts
a new sentence. This reflects li’s origins as a third person
marker. Many people have expanded the use of li tointroduce a new verb, even when the subject is mi or sina.
pu style:
jan li toki li moku.
mi toki. mi moku.

The person speaks and eats.
I speak and eat.

Expanded li style:jan li toki li moku.
mi toki li moku.

The person speaks and eats.
I speak and eat.

p. 58
jan Melani li kama tawa tomo mi.
We can also say:jan Melani li kama lon tomo mi.
p. 62
This page contains by far the most important message inlipu pu.
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p. 65
Correction: 2. kulupu pi toki pona li pana e ijo mute.
p. 73
Non-ableist language: A sage is a strange person.
p. 76
Non-ableist language: Women will make men impulsive.
(Of course, not all men experience opposite-sex attraction inthis way.)p. 92–103
Signed Toki Pona (toki pona luka) was presented as a game tobattle Lojbanists. A new and very pona project, luka pona, hassince been designed by jan Olipija to be usable as anaturalistic sign language alongside Toki Pona. I recommend
learning luka pona.
p. 104–111
The community has developed sitelen pona glyphs for many
non-pu words. For example, two great font projects include
linja sike by lipamanka and linja suwi by jan Ana.
An alternate and secular form of the sewi glyph also exists as
an option. It matches the other spatial terms like anpa.
For example, search for “sitelen pona la sitelen ante mi pi
nimi sewi” by u/neonpixii on Reddit.

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p. 112–123
These were presented as suggestions and still serve as usefuldefaults to fall back on. If the community of Toki Ponaspeakers, especially those with a connection to the place orlanguage in question, agree on a way they would prefer tobe called in Toki Pona, please use that form. In Toki Pona,
there is a preference for endonyms. Also there is an effort tore-use the same word for the country, the language and theethnic group. See nimi.tokipona.org
p. 116Is the example of ma Sawusi an error or an indication thatToki Pona phonotactics are less strict when transcribing
foreign words?
p. 125–134
In an effort to minimize the vocabulary for learners, somewords were presented as merged: a and kin, sin and namako,
lukin and oko. In reality, the community of Toki Ponaspeakers, both before and after publication of the first book,uses these words with different meanings. See thedictionary part of this book for definitions.

12akesi li suwi!
p. 125
Correction:
akesi
NOUN reptile, amphibian
p. 130Non-ableist language:nasa
ADJ unusual, strange; silly; drunk, intoxicatedp. 131The examples given for seli are in fact nouns.
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