Yes, but one has to choose one of Elder Futhark, Medieval etc., then choose which runes the (assumed) historical usage matches Toki Pona phonemes most closely, and propose that as a system for TP. I know, that hardly counts as “work”, but it’s a teensy bit of work nonetheless. Here’s a simple proposal using Elder Fuþark.
Table
Reconstructed Proto-Germanic rune names taken from Wikipedia.
Edit: If you can’t see runes in this post, try installing a font like
Junicode.
Code: Select all
/p/ ᛈ perþo
/t/ ᛏ tīwaz
/k/ ᚲ kaunan
/s/ ᛊ sōwilō
/m/ ᛗ mannaz
/n/ ᚾ naudiz
/l/ ᛚ laguz
/j/ ᛃ jēra
/w/ ᚹ wunjō
/a/ ᚨ ansuz
/e/ ᛖ ehwaz
/i/ ᛁ īsaz
/o/ ᛟ ōþalan
/u/ ᚢ ūruz
[/size]
Sample Texts
mi sitelen kepeken sitelen Luno. ni li musi tawa mi.
ᛗᛁ᛬ᛊᛁᛏᛖᛚᛖᚾ᛬ᚲᛖᛈᛖᚲᛖᚾ᛬ᛊᛁᛏᛖᛚᛖᚾ᛭ᛚᚢᚾᛟ᛭ ᛫ ᚾᛁ᛬ᛚᛁ᛬ᛗᚢᛊᛁ᛬ᛏᚨᚹᚨ᛬ᛗᛁ
Please forgive my Toki Pona, I’m still learning. I rendered “runes” as “Luno”, following the Proto-Germanic etymology *Runo.
An excerpt from the Edda, with clumsy Toki Pona version by me:
Hot art thou, fire! | too fierce by far;
Get ye now gone, ye flames!
The mantle is burnt, | though I bear it aloft,
And the fire scorches the fur.
seli o, sina seli! sina wawa mute!
sina o pini! seli o!
mi kama e ni: len li lon sewi. taso len li pakala seli.
seli li seli kin e selo.
ᛊᛖᛚᛁ᛬ᛟ᛬ᛊᛁᚾᚨ᛬ᛊᛖᛚᛁ ᛫ ᛊᛁᚾᚨ᛬ᚹᚨᚹᚨ᛬ᛗᚢᛏᛖ ᛫
ᛊᛁᚾᚨ᛬ᛟ᛬ᛈᛁᚾᛁ ᛫ ᛊᛖᛚᛁ᛬ᛟ ᛫
ᛗᛁ᛬ᚲᚨᛗᚨ᛬ᛖ᛬ᚾᛁ᛬ᛚᛖᚾ᛬ᛚᛁ᛬ᛚᛟᚾ᛬ᛊᛖᚹᛁ ᛫ ᛏᚨᛊᛟ᛬ᛚᛖᚾ᛬ᛚᛁ᛬ᛈᚨᚲᚨᛚᚨ᛬ᛊᛖᛚᛁ ᛫
ᛊᛖᛚᛁ᛬ᛚᛁ᛬ᛊᛖᛚᛁ᛬ᚲᛁᚾ᛬ᛖ᛬ᛊᛖᛚᛟ ᛫
Same text, but justified (which kinds of ruins the verses, since my translation has no regular metric):
ᛊᛖᛚᛁ᛬ᛟ᛬ᛊᛁᚾᚨ᛬ᛊᛖᛚᛁ᛫ᛊᛁᚾᚨ᛬ᚹᚨᚹᚨ᛬ᛗᚢᛏ
ᛖ᛫ᛊᛁᚾᚨ᛬ᛟ᛬ᛈᛁᚾᛁ᛫ᛊᛖᛚᛁ᛬ᛟ᛫ᛗᛁ᛬ᚲᚨᛗᚨ᛬ᛖ
᛬ᚾᛁ᛬ᛚᛖᚾ᛬ᛚᛁ᛬ᛚᛟᚾ᛬ᛊᛖᚹᛁ᛫ᛏᚨᛊᛟ᛬ᛚᛖᚾ᛬ᛚ
ᛁ᛬ᛈᚨᚲᚨᛚᚨ᛬ᛊᛖᛚᛁ᛫ᛊᛖᛚᛁ᛬ᛚᛁ᛬ᛊᛖᛚᛁ᛬ᚲᛁᚾ
᛬ᛖ᛬ᛊᛖᛚᛟ᛫
Punctuation and conventions
I’m no runologist, and I’m not familiar with historical punctuation usage in runic alphabets, so I came up with punctuation rules that feel “runey” to me. Plase consider this a suggestion and improve as you see fit.
Text can be broken in lines or just run continuously, in which case it should be typeset so that all lines have approximately the same width. Words are separated by a double punctuation mark (᛬) instead of spaces, like in the Codex Runicus. Sentences are separated by an interpunct (᛫), optionally surrounded by spaces.
There’s no equivalent for “!”, “?”, “:” and “,”, so these are ommited. That means you lose some information compared to the standard toki pona alphabet, and need (even) more context.
Proper names are surrounded by cross-puncts (᛭): “ ᛃᚨᚾ᛭ᚲᛖᚾ᛭ ”. The cross-punct substitutes a double-punct (word separator), but not a sentence separator. Though the double-punct is only used between two words, the cross-punct is always on both sides of a proper name, even if there’s no next word.
Disclaimer: I don’t actually know runes, Proto-Germanic, or Toki Pona for that matter.