pu

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(Redirected from 󱥕)
pu in sitelen pona
pu in sitelen sitelen
A stack of copies of the book Toki Pona: The Language of Good, fanned across a table
A stack of copies of the book Toki Pona: The Language of Good, fanned across a table
Pronunciation /pu/
Usage 2024: Core (95% ↘︎ )2023: Core (96% ↗︎ )2022: Core (94%)
Book and era nimi pu
Part of speech Content word
Codepoint 󱥕 U+F1955

pu is a core content word defined as "interacting with the official Toki Pona book", Toki Pona: The Language of Good. This generally refers to words and ways of speaking that are featured in said book. It is the first such book word.

Etymology[edit | edit source]

The etymology of the word pu is uncertain. Proposals include English book, and Chinese 樸/朴 (, lit. 'unworked wood'), which is used as a Daoist metaphor for the natural state of humanity.[1] It was coined by jan Sonja as of 2009; see § History.

Semantic space[edit | edit source]

This text is interacting with Toki Pona: The Language of Good, so by some definitions, it is pu.

The semantic space of pu includes interacting in any way with the book Toki Pona: The Language of Good. It may also refer to the book itself. As a modifier, it includes anything relating to the book, and it is sometimes used as a reference frame. For example, tenpo pu can refer to "the era of Toki Pona: The Language of Good", starting with its publication. Earth can be called mun pu nanpa wan, "the first celestial body to interact with Toki Pona: The Language of Good".

Extensions[edit | edit source]

Caution: The subject of this section is nonstandard and will not be understood by most speakers.
If you are a learner, this information will not help you speak the language. It is recommended to familiarize yourself with the standard style, and to be informed and selective about which nonstandard styles you adopt.

Due to the wording of its definition, pu is sometimes extended to unintuitive interactions. For a practical example, a surface upon which a copy of Toki Pona: The Language of Good is resting would be supa pu, even though it is not engaging with the text content of the book. A similar common joke is that the book should not be called pu in general, but a stack of copies is pu, since each copy is "interacting" with another. This sense is substantiated by some of the example sentences in The Language of Good, such as sina pu anu seme? for "Have you touched the official Toki Pona book?"[2]

Rarely, pu is extended to mean "official", to refer to other authoritative documents such as a constitution, or to describe conventional and standard language as opposed to slang.[3]

pu[edit | edit source]

In the "Official Toki Pona Dictionary" section, the book Toki Pona: The Language of Good defines pu as:

ADJECTIVE  interacting with the official Toki Pona book

ku[edit | edit source]

For Toki Pona Dictionary, respondents in ma pona pi toki pona translated these English words as pu:[3]

interact with Toki Pona: The Language of Good5, officially2

sitelen pona[edit | edit source]

Title page version

The sitelen pona glyph for pu (󱥕) represents a simplified drawing of the book's cover, or alternatively, the book radical (lipu) with the combined glyph for toki pona inside.

When space is limited (such as in small handwriting, linja pimeja fonts, or pixel fonts), the glyph for pu is sometimes simplified by replacing the toki pona combined glyph inside by just a toki glyph. This should in theory be read as lipu toki, but will usually be understood as pu if it looks cramped, especially if there are no other combined glyphs in the text.

sitelen sitelen[edit | edit source]

In sitelen sitelen, the word pu is written with a syllable glyph (PU).

There is not a unique word glyph for pu. This is arguably also the case for ko (ko) and sin (sin).

History[edit | edit source]

Caution: The subject of this section is historical information that is presented for completeness, and might not reflect current usage.

An early misconception, first added to the French Wikipedia Toki Pona article in 2005,[4] was that the word pu was used like a comma to avoid grammatical ambiguity.[5] It is unclear where this originated, and whether it is related to the current word pu or was a coincidental nimi sin.

As of 10 October 2009,[6] pu had been coined alongside alasa, kipisi, and namako, and added to the tokipona.org wiki.[7] Its article was blank.[6] However, reportedly, the talk page for "What is Toki Pona?" (the wiki's main page) did suggest that pu meant "to have the official Toki Pona book", with jan Te even predicting the noun usage of referring directly to the book.[5] The presence of the word pu on this category was clearly noted on the Toki Pona Forums on 11 October.[8]

Various new guesses at the meaning of pu emerged. One theory was that it derived from Chinese 樸/朴 (, "simple, rough; sincere; (Taoism) pu", lit. 'unworked wood') and could have a similar usage.[9] Others speculated that the article's lack of content directly indicated the meaning of pu—that it would be literally undefined, meaning whatever the user wanted it to mean, or refer deictically to an "unspeakable truth" that cannot be directly put into words.[10] The actual definition seems to have only become clear upon the book's release in 2014.[11]

See also[edit | edit source]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. jan Mato (9 January 2010). "Re: What is pu". Toki Pona Forums. Retrieved 17 November 2023.
  2. Lang, Sonja. (25 May 2014). Toki Pona: The Language of Good. Tawhid. ISBN 978-0978292300. OCLC 921253340. p. 31.
  3. 3.0 3.1 Lang, Sonja. (18 July 2021). Toki Pona Dictionary. Illustrated by Vacon Sartirani. Tawhid. ISBN 978-0978292362. p. 336.
  4. Wikipedia. Toki pona. "Un mot alternatif contesté est pu, il agit comme une sorte de virgule pour éviter certains contresens. Ce mot est rejetté par la norme officielle mais il est utilisé ci et là." [A contested alternative word is pu, it acts like a kind of comma to avoid certain misinterpretations. This word is rejected by the official norm but it is used here and there]. French Wikipedia. Archived 25 December 2005. Retrieved 17 November 2023.
  5. 5.0 5.1 jan Te [janTe]. (30 December 2009). "Re: nimi sin sin (eĉ plu novaj vortoj, even more new words)". Toki Pona Forums. Retrieved 31 August 2024.

    Hmmm. I wonder if pu is intended to avoid confusion caused by words like tawa and poka which can be both modifiers and prepositions. Maybe pu can be placed before the prepositional usages.

    However, we also have http://en.tokipona.org/wiki/Talk:What_is_Toki_Pona%3F, where pu seems to mean "to have the official Toki Pona book". I can see why that would be a useful word for Sonja if she ends up doing a wildly successful book tour and long autograph sessions. (And it makes sense that the word hasn't been used yet, because the book doesn't yet exist.) As a noun, maybe the word will refer to the official Toki Pona book.

  6. 6.0 6.1 jan Sonja. (10 October 2009). "pu". tokipona.org. Archived from the original on 5 July 2013. Retrieved 31 August 2024.
  7. jan Sonja. "Category:Toki Pona words". tokipona.org. Archived from the original on 28 October 2009. Retrieved 31 August 2024. (The date, "1 October 2009", refers to the last edit to the category text; the automatically generated list of pages may have changed between then and archival.)
  8. [rdmiller3]. (11 October 2009). "Re: nimi sin sin (eĉ plu novaj vortoj, even more new words)". Toki Pona Forums. Retrieved 31 August 2024.
  9. jan Ape et al.. (27 November 2011). "I think I understand the concept of "pu"!". Toki Pona Forums. Retrieved 31 August 2024.
  10. jan Mato [janMato]. (9 January 2010). "Re: What is pu". Toki Pona Forums. Retrieved 31 August 2024.
  11. jan Kekan San. "When was pu added to Toki Pona?". mun.la. Archived from the original on 1 March 2024. Retrieved 31 August 2024.

Further reading[edit | edit source]