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mi toki ala lon toki pona. mi toki pona.

Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2015 6:58 pm
by janAetherStar
toki!
So, I came up with a new way to say "I speak language x". (By new, I mean I first thought of the idea, then realised that I once saw the same thing happen in Esperanto in "Mi parolas Esperante.") It may have horrible implications or it may work really well, but oh well, I'll see what you guys think.

Basically, the idea is that the language is a kind of unofficial adverb. Here are examples:
mi toki Inli - I speak in an "Inli" manner - I speak English
mi toki Nijon - I speak in a "Nijon" manner - I speak Japanese
...etc.

Or, a longer version that makes it extremely clear that the adverb is a language:
mi toki pi toki Inli
mi toki pi toki Nijon
etc.

nasin ni li pona anu ike tawa sina mute?
lon pona! :)

Re: mi toki ala lon toki pona. mi toki pona.

Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2015 10:43 pm
by jan Alanto
I somewhat agree with that usage. I just don't use it for the sake of clarity, it's not advertised by any lessons and kinda looks strange.

But I've actually seen it in the Facebook. Somebody used "jan seme li ken pona tawa mi li toki pona li toki Mosijo." (Who can help me, talks in toki pona and talks in Hungarian?) but was corrected by Kipo, who struggled to know what he wanted to say (ken pona e toki pona e toki Mosijo? toki pona kepeken toki Mosijo?). Just stating what happened.

Re: mi toki ala lon toki pona. mi toki pona.

Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2015 10:46 pm
by janKipo
Well, the 'pi toki Inli' version got put down a long time ago because there was too much going on there. But that space has thinned out since, so it is possible. The pure adjective (I suppose actually adverb) style won't work for tp itself, alas, but doesn't present any problems for other languages. It does mean that the specification of unofficial words has to be revised, but not significantly, I think. Ah, there is one conflict 'mi toki Inli' currently means "I am the English language", but I don't suppose that is likely to cause confusion. Let's see what others think (Put it up on Facebook, since not many people seem to come here,)
My thanks to jan Alanto for clarifying that whole discussion, which I (if Alanto is right) totally misread.