Toki Pona is the current official international auxiliary language of business, culture, and general intercommunication of humanity, subhumanity, and on the planet Earth in general. It was created by dislinguist Sonja Lang, an unintentional Discordian, and is the probably closest thing to what would be called "the holy language of Discord".
Anyone who reads this is now officially required by law to commence the bombarding of the UN with serious official-seeming submissions of semi-legitimate complaints in toki pona in order to trick as many global diplomats as possible into learning the language so that they can make translations.
Stage 2 of the masterplan is to create important resources and official documents that can only be accessed in toki pona in order to trigger a series of events that will force mass numbers of the population to learn the (fairly easy to learn) language.
Vocabulary[]
Very small.
Grammar[]
This way includes mi/sina in a position that is neither the subject nor object that could possibly ruin the way people think to some extent. (ie. "The Sapir-Worf hypothesis") Doesn't technically break any rules. (ie. "pu")
SVO, generally, Silver Vanadium Oxide.
1. Subject
2:
- mi - caused by mi.
- sina - caused by you.
- li - caused by some random other person or being.
3. Verb
4. "e"
5. Object
Example:
jan mi moku e soweli - They eat the porcupine. (lit. "I made them eat the porcupine with my mind")
| jan | mi | moku | e | soweli |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| They | Eat | Porcupine |
Phonology (In its natural Discordian native accent)[]
Has a range for the phonemes /s, l, w/ that includes allophones for [s, l, w] and laminal sounds that some people find easier to pronounce, plus a lot of ingressive airstream for no apparent reason. That being said, [v] and [w] mean exactly the same thing, and no one knows why two completely different symbols are used to represent same sound in some languages.
| Non-Moraic Consonants | Labial | Coronal* | Velar |
|---|---|---|---|
| Voiceless Plosive | /p~pʰ/ | /t~tʰ/ | /k~kʰ/ |
| Implosive Nasal | /m↓'/ | /n↓'/ | |
| Voiceless Fricative | /s~h/ | ||
| Approximant/Voiced Fricative | /v~w/* | /l~ʁ/ |
- *French-like dental laminal.
- Teeth are positioned post-labially in [v].
| Moraic Consonants | |
|---|---|
| Implosive Nasal | /n↓' ~ ŋ↓'/ → (m↓')* |
| Fricative | (ç) |
| Approximant | j |
- *Assimilation
- Sequence "li" lenties → [ç] end of words.
| Vowels | Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | /i/* | /u/* | |
| Mid | /e/* | /o/* | |
| Open | /a/* |
- Vowels are ingressive around nasals
- *Random pharyngealization
- Small vowel space
Stress[]
Mora timed, high pitch accent on first mora.
Alternative Communication[]
- Languages can generally be hummed if you practice, which is very useful for lazy people.
- Toki Pona Sign Language can be useful in a quiet library or house of worship, during covert ninja operations, diving underwater for treasure, or while taunting rival Lojbanists with gang signs as Sonja Lang points out in Toki Pona: The Language of Good, but just as long as Gorillas are capable of making the hand signs.
Orthography[]
One idea is to put each of toki pona's sitelen pona symbols on top of a optional colourful backgrounds, this bright colours and varying shades makes things easier to read from just uniform lines, particularly from a distances. (If you have a proposal, you may add your artwork into an edit here.)
Learning Resources[]
- 12 Days of sona pi toki pona Day One: Reading and Whatnot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L-dvvng4Zc
- o kama sona e sitelen pona - Introduction (Learn to read Sitelen Pona hieroglyphs) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uze2LKVN-2E
- Toki Pona: The Language of Good by Sonja Lang paperback and e-book https://www.amazon.com/Toki-Pona-Language-Sonja-Lang/dp/0978292308