Nonce words
A nonce word is a word invented for a single occasion, and otherwise not understood as a word. In Toki Pona, several of these have been used in art, given glyphs in certain writing systems (chiefly sitelen pona), and recorded in dictionaries, but remain used more as pieces of community culture than as words proper.
Examples[edit | edit source]
In art[edit | edit source]
- Singer and songwriter jan Usawi coined variations on omekapo as the names of their songs omekalike (2021), short for o moku e kala ike,[1] and omekalikante (2022), short for o moku e kala ike ante.[2] These may be translated as "good riddance" or "badbye".[3][4]
- sowejoki, kala pona Tonyu's translation of Lewis Caroll's nonsense poem Jabberwocky, uses a lot of nonce words, such as sun (from "suno"), misu and musu (from "musi"), and wapisi (from "kipisi wawa").
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ jan Usawi (3 May 2021). omekalike. YouTube. Archived from the original on 23 March 2023. Retrieved 20 October 2023.
- ↑ jan Usawi (29 June 2022). omekalikante. YouTube. Archived from the original on 20 October 2023. Retrieved 20 October 2023.
- ↑ jan Usawi. (4 April 2021). [Message posted in the
#pali-musichannel in the ma pona pi toki pona Discord server]. Discord. Retrieved 25 December 2023. "I had the thought of trying to write a song in toki pona today and it ended up being this like kinda-dark-kinda-silly-very-petty breakup song, all because I had the bright idea for a title of “o moku e kala ike” shkdhdjhd". - ↑ jan Misali [@hbmmaster]. (6 December 2021). [Message posted in the
#toki-ponachannel in the ma pona pi toki pona Discord server]. Discord. Retrieved 25 December 2023. ""good riddance' is a good translation for it imo ("goodbye" in a "I hope I never see you again" sense)".