Phonology

The phonology of Toki Pona is the set of phonemes (speech sounds) that speakers distinguish between. Phonotactics describe the ways phonemes can be arranged.

Consonants

There are nine consonant phonemes. Most of the consonants are intuitive to English speakers. The letter j is pronounced like English Y, as it is in "fjord" and "hallelujah". This is also its value in languages like German (ja) and Swedish (hej då). The letter j was originally an i with a swash tail, and it is helpful to think of it as such in Toki Pona.

Consonant phonemes

	Labial	Coronal	Dorsal
Nasal	m	n
Stop	p	t	k
Fricative		s
Approximant	w	l	j

Consonants are only distinguished by place and manner of articulation. Qualities like voicing and aspiration do not make a difference: p t k can be pronounced as [b d ɡ] if need be.

Vowels

Vowel chart

There are five vowel phonemes.

According to Toki Pona: The Language of Good, the vowels are ideally more centered than their default values in the International Phonetic Alphabet. a is centralized to [ä], and e o are lowered to mid [e̞ o̞].

Vowel phonemes

	Front	Back
Close	i	u
Mid	e	o
Open	a

Allophones

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The tokiponization guidelines suggest some recognizable allophones:

• [v] becomes w, but its unvoiced equivalent [f] becomes p.
• Uvular and velar consonants are allophones of k.
• The rhotic consonants correspond to multiple Toki Pona phonemes. Tapped [ɾ] or trilled [r] becomes l. The English R sound, an often labialized approximant [ɹ⁽ʷ⁾], instead becomes w. As above, the French or German R becomes k.
• Dental fricatives can become t or s.
• Affricates are allophones of fricatives.
• Voiceless laterals become s.

Here is an attempt to chart this information:

Allophones of pulmonic consonants
(voiceless · voiced)

	Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	(Post)velar
Nasal	m	n
Plosive	p	t			k
Trill, tap, or flap		l
Fricative or affricate	p · w	t~s	s
Approximant	w			j
Lateral	—	s · l

References

Original text related to this article:

Toki Pona: The Language of Good § Letters and Sounds