Is the CALS page for toki pona correct?

Language learning: How to speak Toki Pona, translation problems, advice, memory aids, tools and methods to learn Toki Pona and other languages faster
Lingva lernado: Kiel paroli Tokiponon, tradukproblemoj, konsiloj, memoraj helpiloj, iloj kaj metodoj por pli rapide lerni Tokiponon kaj aliajn lingvojn
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janMato
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Is the CALS page for toki pona correct?

Post by janMato »

http://cals.conlang.org/language/toki-pona/

For example the CALS page says "there is no "we" in toki pona", so what is "mi mute"? Is the English "you all/y'all", not really the 2nd person plural just because it takes two words to say it ? I bet if (or when at this rate) the Chinese had conquered the world instead of the descendants of Latin and IE languages, we'd be making remarks like "Latin is a primative language with no way to say things in an isolating fashion"

Does a language lack a feature just because it is isolating? The WALS page seems to think so, Ref http://wals.info/feature/description/39

For example WALS says the construct "mi en sina" doesn't indicate a dual pronoun, which sounds reasonable, but we have the following legal constructs in toki pona:

mi- we (but also I and all of the below as well)
mi mute. we, 2+, inclusive or exclusive, possibly a subset of everyone, maybe not.
mi lili. we, 2+ but not a large group
mi tu. we 2
mi tu wan. we 3
mi tu tu. we 4
mi luka. we 5
mi ale. we all. Inclusive of everyone.

Anyhow, at worst in toki pona, the WALS category should be "1.2 ‘We’ and ‘I’ are identical."
janKipo
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Joined: Fri Oct 09, 2009 2:20 pm

Re: Is the CALS page for toki pona correct?

Post by janKipo »

People say strange thing about languages, often getting categories mixes, typically form and function, as here. tp has no separate word for "we" exclusively but the various roles "we" plays in English are handled by a variety of expressions appropriate for the intended function and other contextual features. (Note, they seem to think that "we" is one function in English, because one word.)
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