Abbreviations

The subject of this article 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.

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This is a list of nonstandard abbreviations in Toki Pona.

kepeken

kepeken is tied with sitelen as the longest nimi pu. It has accrued many abbreviations, such as kepen (listed in ijo Linku) and kpkn.

The 3-letter abbreviations kkn, kpk and kpn cannot be mistaken for any other nimi ku or word in Linku. kep only overlaps with okepuma, an obscure non-ku nimi sin.^[a]

Can we go further? While kk conflicts with several nimi ku, it is unique among nimi pu, though probably extremely unclear. Every other 2-letter abbreviation is more ambiguous.

kijetesantakalu

kijetesantakalu is often shortened to kijete or kije. Some speakers dislike this, as the original point of the word was to be overly long, while proponents of these abbreviations may like and use the word for unrelated reasons.

From sitelen pona

Some words may be written using symbols yhat the look like their corresponding sitelen pona glyphs. Examples include:

p for mi
b or 6 for sina
x for ala
- Can be unspaced in questions, e.g. kxk for ken ala ken
k for ken
w for wile
> for li
# for nanpa

Headnouns

When referring to someone, their headnoun may be abbreviated as a single letter and attached to the name word without a space, such as soweli Keju becoming sKeju. Modifiers get their own letters, so akesi wawa Lupon becomes awLupon. Abbreviating headnouns in this way is attested as early as 2009.^[1]

Numbers

Number words may be written as their first letters, capitalized and without spaces between them. For example, ale ale mute luka luka wan could be written as AAMLLW.

Notes

↑ As of July 2023. This can be confirmed with the regular expressions /k\w*k\w*n/, /k\w*p\w*[kn]/, and /k\w*e\w*p/.

References

↑ jan-ante (11 December 2009). Re: ken ala ken weka e sitelen ike?. "mi pilin e ni:jSonja li pana e jan lawa sin tawa tomo toki ni la ni li pona tawa mi ale. jKipo li jan lawa pona tawa mi". Toki Pona Forums.

[1] As of July 2023. This can be confirmed with the regular expressions /k\w*k\w*n/, /k\w*p\w*[kn]/, and /k\w*e\w*p/.

[2] -ante (11 December 2009). Re: ken ala ken weka e sitelen ike?. "mi pilin e ni:jSonja li pana e jan lawa sin tawa tomo toki ni la ni li pona tawa mi ale. jKipo li jan lawa pona tawa mi". Toki Pona Forums.

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