Toki Pona is a conlang created by Canadian linguist Sonja Lang in 2001. Inspired by Taoism and the Sapir Whorf Hypothesis, it was designed to be fun, cute, and minimalistic, and promote positive thinking. By its social media presence, Toki Pona may be the second most-used conlang online. Speakers use it to chat, translate cultural works, and create original music and visual art.
Toki Pona's distinctively small core vocabulary is just over 120 wordsderived from . Most words can be used as any main part of speech. The exceptions are a few particles that mark parts of the sentence; many of the grammar rules just detail where to use each particle. However, with so few words, context is vital to reduce vagueness, and literal retranslations turn to Buffy Speak. Speakers can break down complex ideas into a layperson's explanation of their crucial properties, revealing insights and the level of understanding of the topic. Even proper names are preceded by a basic classificationfor example . Names may be "tokiponized" to fit the syllable rules; "TV Tropes" might become lipu Siwi To.note
Toki Pona mainly uses the Latin Alphabet — 14 letters, all-lowercase except in names. The most popular original writing system is sitelen pona, Sonja Lang's logography, which evokes simplified hieroglyphs with pictorial shapes and rebus cartouches. An adjective can nest inside or stack above a noun: the symbol for Toki Pona is the smile of pona inside the emitting circle for toki. Also well-known is sitelen sitelen (also called sitelen suwi), Jonathan Gabel's intricate, non-linear, graffiti-styled script.
2014 marked the language's completion with the book Toki Pona: The Language of Good, or lipu pu. It includes lessons, texts, a phrasebook and dictionary, and a guide to both mentioned writing systems.
While The Language of Good limited Toki Pona to 120 words for learners' benefit, speakers have kept analyzing and expanding the language's possibilities. Many go even more minimal by avoiding certain structures and words. On the converse are additional words, nimi sin, which vary in usage. Some nimi sin impose experimental grammar rules or original number systemsnote . Others are In-Jokes, like the Unpronounceable Self-Deprecating yupekosinote and a hyperspecific April Fools' Day word for procyonids, kijetesantakalu. The community has designed glyphs for many of these words within Toki Pona's writing systems. James Flear's kijetesantakalu glyph for sitelen pona is something of a Breakout Character, interpreted as a cutesy, mushroom-stealing Rascally Raccoon.
When all is said, should speakers carefully prescribe to The Language of Good, or could experimentation, inclusive language, and deviation from the philosophy be healthy? This tension was defused in 2021 when Lang published a second book, Toki Pona Dictionary, or lipu ku. It underscored her desire for the speaking community to take charge of Toki Pona's evolution, while compiling words, definitions, and more from community use. All translations came with frequency data; 17 nimi sin were attested enough to be considered "an essential part of Toki Pona". Since then, a nimi sin for non-binary, tonsi, is deemed an honorary pu word. Some pu definitions have also shifted.
As Toki Pona spreads, more communication methods are compatible. Luka Pona is the community's dominant sign language. Fonts for Toki Pona writing systems have existed since 2016, often supporting nimi sin. In early 2022, the UCSUR
allocated an unofficial Unicode range for sitelen pona. Several fonts adopted the new codepoints, and more sitelen pona input tools became possible. Meanwhile, the community successfully applied for an ISO 639-3 code, allowing digital text to be marked as Toki Pona and expanding possibilities for software localization. This affirms Toki Pona as a notable living language despite its small footprint.
Examples:
- Chess: lichess.org offers a Toki Pona language setting.
- While Duolingo does not (yet?) offer a Toki Pona course, it shouts out the language every so often, such as in this blog post about conlangs.
- The JaidenAnimations video "I Hate Reading" includes a Wall of Text written by a conlang enthusiast, which mentions Toki Pona several times and has a short passage written in it. The text's author mentions planning to make Toki Pona video lessons, but decides against it mid-paragraph, noting how many already exist.
- kijetesantakalu o! is an original comic about Toki Pona's unofficial mascot written in the language.
- jan Misali:
- He likes the language enough to go by a tokiponization of his name.
- One of his video series, 12 Days of sona pi toki pona, is among the most popular Toki Pona learning resources. It's being redone from the ground up starting in 2021.
- Toki Pona was reviewed in episode twelve of Conlang Critic. Misali argued that its design goals line up with the ideal for an international auxiliary language. He continued comparing it favorably against actual interlangs in later episodes with the ranking system.
- Misali also makes, translates, and remixes lyrical music in Toki Pona.
- lipu tenpo (ISSN 2752-4639) is a monthly Toki Pona zine written in the language.
- Minecraft has been localized into Toki Pona as of Java Edition 1.18. It is the eighth conlang in the game, joining Esperanto, Ido, Lojban, Quenya, Klingon, and more.
- Pepper&Carrot offers a full Toki Pona translation, jan Pepa&soweli Kawa, with an incomplete sitelen pona version here.
- A Toki Pona Caramelldansen Vid has been made using Synth V.
- Several language-learning books have been translated to Toki Pona, such as akesi seli lili and meli olin moli. Other translated books include The Little Prince, Little Red Riding Hood, Winnie the Pooh, and excerpts of religious texts such as the Bible and Qur'an.
- Wikipedia was officially available in Toki Pona in 2004. The edition was removed due to the language being incomplete at the time, and now exists on its own website as lipu Wikipesija. Of course, official Wikipedia editions offer articles on Toki Pona.
