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What is SostiMatiko/Dama Diwan?

Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2016 10:56 am
by v01d
Hi everyone,

I recently started learning Toki Pona and came across this person mentioning SostiMatiko, that apparently he abandoned for the "perfect" Dama Diwan. Sounds a bit weird. Is it worth looking into? Thx :-)

Re: What is SostiMatiko/Dama Diwan?

Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2016 11:53 am
by janKipo
Giannhs Kenanidhs created a series of languages, starting with Basic Greek (as it were) and moving more and more toward a tp like language. He ended with Dama Dewa, which he seems to like a lot. It has more basic words than tp and these all have a variety of endings. Otherwise, the grammar is quite similar to tp in structure if not in details. The word endings do alleviate one big tp problem, telling whether something is a noun or a verb or an adjective (or a preposition, indeed). The biggest problem with DD, for me, is that its wordspace is totally filled -- every possible word is a word. So, any little slip makes an unrecognizable change in the meaning of the whole. tp is not nearly as free from this problem as it should be (ala/ali), but it is minor. In DD it is major (GK denies this in a text which contains a handful of cases that make the literal text meaningless). That aside, it is a toss-up. DD uses more words and has endings but is easier to be clear in. tp uses fewer and requires more work that some are willing to put in to be clear. DD is less forgiving of mechanical mistakes than tp. And, since any word in DD is surrounded by many others that differ from it in only one letter, learning the vocabulary correctly is a somewhat harder task (and, of course, the vocabulary is larger). Take a look at DD --- the best stuff is on academia.edu -- and decide for yourself.

Re: What is SostiMatiko/Dama Diwan?

Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2016 11:59 am
by v01d
Thank you for your detailed response, I appreciate it. Will go have a look, for now I'm happy learning Toki Pona :-)