A range of possibilities

Signs and symbols: Writing systems (hieroglyphs, nail writing) and Signed Toki Pona; unofficial scripts too
Signoj kaj simboloj: Skribsistemoj (hieroglifoj, ungoskribado) kaj la Tokipona Signolingvo; ankaŭ por neoficialaj skribsistemoj
janTe
Posts: 50
Joined: Wed Nov 04, 2009 4:34 pm

Re: A range of possibilities

Post by janTe »

Also, words like "lipu" and "palisa" could be represented quite well by Chinese classifier words.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ch ... lassifiers

I like the idea that a Chinese speaker could look at Toki Pona written in Chinese characters and be able to guess at the meaning, even without knowing any of the vocabulary.
janKipo
Posts: 3064
Joined: Fri Oct 09, 2009 2:20 pm

Re: A range of possibilities

Post by janKipo »

Nice, but way too complex for anything but calligraphic use.
jan-ante
Posts: 541
Joined: Fri Oct 02, 2009 4:05 pm

Re: A range of possibilities

Post by jan-ante »

janTe wrote:
la -- 地 (comes after adverbials, just like 'la')
but it is ma
e -- 得 (comes after verbs, much like 'e')
this is ken
pi -- 的 (kinda like 'pi', except backwards; In Chinese you'd say "A 的 B", where TP would say "B pi A".)
interesting. from old japanese one could take 之 (not really pi as regroupping operator, but a genitive case)
janTe
Posts: 50
Joined: Wed Nov 04, 2009 4:34 pm

Re: A range of possibilities

Post by janTe »

I didn't know 得 could mean ken. Is that a Japanese usage? My Chinese knowledge is fairly rudimentary, but I haven't seen it meaning ken in Chinese.

I was aware that 地 could also mean ma, but I thought 土 would be better choice of ma for our purposes.

Then again, maybe punctuation would be better for representing structural particles after all.
jan-ante
Posts: 541
Joined: Fri Oct 02, 2009 4:05 pm

Re: A range of possibilities

Post by jan-ante »

janTe wrote:I didn't know 得 could mean ken. Is that a Japanese usage? My Chinese knowledge is fairly rudimentary, but I haven't seen it meaning ken in Chinese.
yes

Then again, maybe punctuation would be better for representing structural particles after all.
definitely
janKipo
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Joined: Fri Oct 09, 2009 2:20 pm

Re: A range of possibilities

Post by janKipo »

I just stuck this in to show (paradoxically) that I don't have to have the last word in every discussion.
mije Wi
Posts: 96
Joined: Sat Nov 21, 2009 5:29 pm

Re: A range of possibilities

Post by mije Wi »

If using Japanese Kanas, i purpose Katakana for tp words and Hiragana for proper adjectives.

I also liked the idea of writing without spaces. In this case, one could use Hiragana for the first syllable and Katakana for the others. But then, what about proper adjectives?

I really don't like the idea of using a different kind of symbols for li, la, o and the like.
janKipo
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Joined: Fri Oct 09, 2009 2:20 pm

Re: A range of possibilities

Post by janKipo »

Yes, indeed. If you leave out spaces, you have to have a unique way to mark the beginning of each word (tp speech streams are not generally uniquely analyzable). The shift to hiragana will not do it, since it might be a proper adjective -- and it might not be even if the next character is also hiragana. Having tried to read ancient texts, where spaces were not used, I can assure you that it is not easy to do. As always, of course, I say what is wrong with the Latin alphabet? On the other hand, if what you want is decoration, where the actual content of the sentences is not important or is well known, then, of course, anything goes.
mije Wi
Posts: 96
Joined: Sat Nov 21, 2009 5:29 pm

Re: A range of possibilities

Post by mije Wi »

I think this: if Toki Pona had originated before its writing system, it would use a syllabic or ideographic writing system. There is another good reason: I would like writing Japanese a lot.
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: A range of possibilities

Post by janKipo »

I think thatis correct; syllabaries seem natural to tp as to Japanese. But, the history of the world being what it is, ...
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