Search found 50 matches

by janTe
Tue Feb 09, 2010 12:14 am
Forum: kama sona toki
Topic: Looking for Swadesh list for toki pona
Replies: 11
Views: 18508

Re: Looking for Swadesh list for toki pona

By the way, the more I think about it, the more I think that "heavy" is best represented by wawa , rather than " suli " or " mute ". kiwen wawa -- heavy rock. ( kiwen suli would be big rock. kiwen mute would be many rocks.) telo wawa -- thick liquid. ( telo suli doesn't...
by janTe
Mon Feb 08, 2010 11:59 pm
Forum: kama sona toki
Topic: Accidental Difficulties
Replies: 37
Views: 20782

Re: Accidental Difficulties

I've decided that I'd rather avoid the "e ni:" construction. I'd rather use a topic-comment construction. Instead of " mi lukin e ni: waso li kule laso " (I saw that the bird is blue), you can say: waso li kule laso. mi lukin e ona. To indicate something is a want or desire, rath...
by janTe
Fri Feb 05, 2010 6:25 pm
Forum: sin pi toki pona
Topic: Who is watching the Valentine's Day the movie?
Replies: 11
Views: 10631

Re: Who is watching the Valentine's Day the movie?

janTe wrote:Unfortunately, "sina ijo moku" can still mean "you objectify food", so it's not unambiguous.
Oh wait. That would be "sina ijo e moku". With a transitive verb.

Nevermind. Just ignore me.
by janTe
Fri Feb 05, 2010 3:18 pm
Forum: sin pi toki pona
Topic: Who is watching the Valentine's Day the movie?
Replies: 11
Views: 10631

Re: Who is watching the Valentine's Day the movie?

Unfortunately, "sina ijo moku" can still mean "you objectify food", so it's not unambiguous.

A copula verb would be nice. (Hey, maybe that's what "pu" is.)

Alternatively, it would be nice if "ijo" was always a noun, and never a verb.
by janTe
Fri Feb 05, 2010 1:41 pm
Forum: kama sona toki
Topic: Accidental Difficulties
Replies: 37
Views: 20782

Re: Accidental Difficulties

Speaking of the "e ni:" construction, I'd like to point out that the Toki Pona word list says "ni" is a modifier, not a noun. So saying "mi pilin e ni:" or "mi wile e ni:" is ungrammatical. And yet, everyone does it. I suspect it's because we need a way to mar...
by janTe
Fri Feb 05, 2010 12:53 pm
Forum: sin pi toki pona
Topic: Who is watching the Valentine's Day the movie?
Replies: 11
Views: 10631

Re: Who is watching the Valentine's Day the movie?

inquigina wrote:Who is going to watch the new Valentine's Day movie coming out February 12th 2010?
mi ala.

mi pilin e ni. sina ijo moku loje walo pi soweli en namako.

(I'm trying to say "You are spam". I said "sina ijo moku" because "sina moku" sounds like "you eat".)
by janTe
Thu Feb 04, 2010 11:11 pm
Forum: jan nasa li wile ante e toki pona
Topic: Chinese calendar? (tenpo sike pi jan Sonko)
Replies: 22
Views: 19677

Re: Chinese calendar? (tenpo sike pi jan Sonko)

For "hunting animal", I like "soweli pi wile alasa" and "soweli pi lukin alasa". I think they both work well. For "hunted animal", I think "soweli pi kama moku" is still ambiguous. It could mean "animal that starts to eat". Maybe "sowe...
by janTe
Thu Feb 04, 2010 5:53 pm
Forum: jan nasa li wile ante e toki pona
Topic: Chinese calendar? (tenpo sike pi jan Sonko)
Replies: 22
Views: 19677

Re: Chinese calendar? (tenpo sike pi jan Sonko)

Tiger -- soweli alasa (predatory mammal?) Or, unfortunately, "game animal" -- the modifier/modified relation is very ambiguous (or vague-- take your pick) I was thinking about how I would disambiguate "hunting animal" from "hunted animal" if I needed to. The best I cou...
by janTe
Wed Jan 27, 2010 12:24 pm
Forum: jan nasa li wile ante e toki pona
Topic: Three-vowel system? (Rename ken?)
Replies: 6
Views: 6871

Re: Three-vowel system? (Rename ken?)

That leaves us with only three non-contrastive vowels
And, of course, I meant "three contrastive", not "three non-contrastive".
The merging of i and e might be one of those things that is inevitable in a natural environment.
It's already happening for me :-)
by janTe
Wed Jan 27, 2010 5:49 am
Forum: jan nasa li wile ante e toki pona
Topic: Three-vowel system? (Rename ken?)
Replies: 6
Views: 6871

Three-vowel system? (Rename ken?)

I notice that there was once a proposal to reduce Toki Pona to a three-vowel system. I assume this would be the three-vowel system used by Arabic (a, i, u). It would make Toki Pona more accessible to all the Arabic speakers of the world. I was thinking about how an Arabic-speaker would pronounce Tok...