Rebus in tp

Creativity: Poetry, music, comics, etc.
Kreado: Poezio, muziko, bildrakontoj, ktp.
Post Reply
mije Wi
Posts: 96
Joined: Sat Nov 21, 2009 5:29 pm

Rebus in tp

Post by mije Wi »

During lessons, my classmate and I used to write rebus for each other. We wrote sentences following these rules:

- no spaces;
- omit non-starting vowels.

For example:

ILKTKPNALT.

Is this possible in Toki Pona? Which are the optimal rules to write secret sentences - i.e., not too obscure nor too simple?
ヤんリヨエヤんセゐラヤんリヰれエアら
janKipo
Posts: 3064
Joined: Fri Oct 09, 2009 2:20 pm

Re: Rebus in tp

Post by janKipo »

I'm not sure why this is called a rebus, since there are no things (or pictures of things) involved, but it is a sort of disguised writing (not quite a code, since there is no key). So, a puzzle, to which those who know the rules are a little better prepared than those who don't -- but not guaranteed a correct reading. The rules for this case would not work too well for tp, I would think, since there are so many overlaps in the language -- one small mistake in figuring out where the divisions were would throw the whole off -- and the number of words that differ only in vowels is high for such a small vocabulary:jnllllllonllt. There are probably some other rules that would work for tp and certainly insertion and transpositions could work effectively (e.g., pig Latin). Of course, with a tp optimized for noisy channels, something like this would work, but would probably not be much of a challenge (nothing at all compared to trying to optimize tp).

I think it is interesting to try to imagine children's games in tp and other pieces of what might be involved in learning tp as an infant (baby talk, mistakes, coaching). Nice question.

btw gldylktkpn.
mije Wi
Posts: 96
Joined: Sat Nov 21, 2009 5:29 pm

Re: Rebus in tp

Post by mije Wi »

The idea behind it is that one should know the context, expecially concerning the no-spaces rule. I originally did this in Italian, and it works very good. For transmission or sms it would be awful.

Maybe it is for lack of English mastery, but I really can't understand your English sentence.

ante la toki Jnllllllonllt li ni. jan li lili li lili ona li lete. mi pona anu ala. mi sona e ni. ona li pona tan ni. jan li ken lukin e nimi ale.
ヤんリヨエヤんセゐラヤんリヰれエアら
janKipo
Posts: 3064
Joined: Fri Oct 09, 2009 2:20 pm

Re: Rebus in tp

Post by janKipo »

It grows on you the more you use it -- and the better you know the language and context. My examples are in one case out of context and the other only remotely connected. The English "Glad you like toki pona" (a response to your piece). The tp was "jan li lili lili la ona li lete" so you did close enough to make me think this might be a feasible game in tp.
mije Wi
Posts: 96
Joined: Sat Nov 21, 2009 5:29 pm

Re: Rebus in tp

Post by mije Wi »

I did it looking at the word list to simulate language mastery.

It seems the most difficult thing is multiple li / la in one sentence. But with such a minimalist language, one can finds two or three difficult sequences but then the game is over. pona a
ヤんリヨエヤんセゐラヤんリヰれエアら
janKipo
Posts: 3064
Joined: Fri Oct 09, 2009 2:20 pm

Re: Rebus in tp

Post by janKipo »

Working backwards helps: in this case, 'on' has to be 'ona' (an advantage of a small vocab), so the l following is likely 'li' since nothing else will make this end as a sentence. But if that is a complete sentence ('lete' again is a sure thing), for the stuff before to be in the same sentence, it must end in 'la'. But then you have a number of variations possible how to group the remaining five ls.
mije Wi
Posts: 96
Joined: Sat Nov 21, 2009 5:29 pm

Re: Rebus in tp

Post by mije Wi »

I meant: one can find some kinds of difficult sequences (like many "l"s) and the game is only that. You can do it no more than a couple of times with such a minimal vocabulary.
ヤんリヨエヤんセゐラヤんリヰれエアら
janKipo
Posts: 3064
Joined: Fri Oct 09, 2009 2:20 pm

Re: Rebus in tp

Post by janKipo »

Yes, there would probably have to be some further restrictions, preventing overuse of things like 'lili' with 'li' and 'la' -- I am sure there are more cases of this sort. But the pairs like 'suli' and 'seli' are going to remain a problem in any case.
Post Reply