Toki Pona: the holy grail of conlangs

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frpeterjackson

Toki Pona: the holy grail of conlangs

Post by frpeterjackson »

I've done a few posts now in TP, but now I want to fall back on Eng.for a moment to share some thoughts. (My apologies to those who don'tread Eng. I could try Esp., but I don't think my Esp. is good enough.)I came across TP a week ago, and I must say I am impressed. It'staking over my life, I admit. Every time I hear something, I try tomentally translate it into TP to test its limits. I am constantlydelighted to find how flexible, applicable and robust it is. Ofcourse, it has its limits. We all know this, and we also know thatthese limits have been intentionally imposed. But to think: here is alanguage -- not a slang, not a code, not a "Euroclone" -- but afunctional human lang. w/grammar, phonology and a morpheme inventoryof ... 118! Of course, there are things you can express in, say,Esperanto, that you can't say in TP. But to think that you canactually learn TP in one day. The pronunciation is easy, the grammaris straightforward and even intuitive, and the dictionary fits on asheet of paper. And then go on to converse not just at a mundanelevel ("moku li pona!"), but even at a truly philosophical one ("miweka e ike jan, la mi weka e ike mi.") It is no exaggeration to claimthat two people on this earth from vastly different cultures andlanguages could each learn this language in one day (okay, give thema week) and then dialogue about the meaning of life. Esperanto can'tgive you that.After stumbling onto TP, I spent all of this past week followingevery Google link on TP and then reading every post on this list.I've discovered a few things.1) After reviewing scores of conlangs, none comes close to the sheergenius of TP. The key to its genius is keeping the vocabulary under150. There's a fine balance between making the morpheme inventory toounwieldy on the one hand and reducing it to the point ofincommunicability on the other. But I never would have guessed that118 words could do so much. (Apparently no one else has, either) Iwould have thought at least 500 would be necessary. I did come acrossSona, invented in the 1930's, which has only 350 roots and certainaffinities w/TP. (Of course, 'sona' is a TP word.) But its morphologyand even its phonology are just needlessly complex. You look at itthink, "Why bother? I'm not gonna do this!" And conlangers like meare actually motivated! What about normal people who aren't? Mylinguistically-challenged son has had his interest piqued by TP. Andthat means a lot.2) TP just sounds so lovely. I speak it all the time. Mostly to mydog. Today she wouldn't come until I said "o tawa". When my wife getsback from her trip, she's gonna be ticked. ('soweli li pakala!') ButI digress. The CV(n) structure is just delightful. It's fun to speak.And I love how the phonemes have so much elbow room as far asallophony. Not so rigid. It's a laid-back phonology! Ali li pona! (Orshould I say "ale li pona." Oh, that's right. I'm free to say either!Yay!)3) Looking back at my postings, I realize that I've had to let mymind adapt to the "nasin pi TP". It's one thing to absorb the vocab.and grammar. Quite another to gradually appreciate the Sapir-Whorfianimplications. I see now that I have been too uptight about beingexact and specific. Instead, a speaker should let the context do theheavy lifting. Go with the flow.4) Some people -- even on this list -- sell TP short, IMO. Yes, ithas its limits, but it's not crippled. I decided to select a readingat random (I picked up the latest issue of Philosophy NOW) and triedto translate the first few paragraphs. I worked out (I think) ways torender "wonder", "dissolve", "horror", "unfold", "bow andarrow", "marriage", "habit", "bound (= jump)" and "suffering". I'llpost the passage later (in TP and Eng.) for everyone to critique.This is actually a very sophisticated language. I know that theoperative word at its conception was "cute", but I can't say I knowwhat that means, really. Maybe TP's cute _and_ sophisticated. Ormaybe by exploring its possibilities we're all helping it to grow up.(Not change, though! That's certainly not what I mean.)5) Most of the posts here have been in English. Let's get some moreTP texts out for all to see, okay? I was pleased to see that May 2004was the most active month ever on this list. Let's get on a rollhere. And let's promote this project. Personally, I think it would bea great tool for any intro linguistics class.I'msure that many of youwho have cut your teeth on TP have never formally studiedlinguistics. I was amazed to find how young many of you all are. Ithought this was the fruit of a bunch of elderly cranks in a toolshedsomewhere. But I'll tell you that by just playing w/TP you've learnedmore linguistics than you realize. Pije, you could get a master's inlinguistics by pretty much just forwarding your website to thelinguistics dept. of any university. (I assume someone like Sonjaalready has some kind of ling. degree...)So my hat's off to Sonja and everyone who has a hand in this.One question before I close: What other one- or two-word la-phraseshave been devised? I know 'ken la' from the lessons. I've seen 'kamala' in the posts (jan Eleni's? I don't remember.), but I don't knowwhat it means or even if it's permissible. Does it work to use 'lonla' to mean 'really/truly/actually'? How about 'lon mi la' (or evenjust 'mi la' to say 'as for me/as far as I'm concerned'?Happy Canada Day and Happy 4th!(mi wile) e tenpo suno pona pi ma Kanata li tenpo suno pona pi openpi ma Mewika!kepeken pilin pona tawa sina mute ali,jan Pita
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