Source:jan Misali's thoughts on words: Difference between revisions

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[[jan|{{tok|jan}}]] is a noun meaning “person” or “someone”. you can be more specific about which person you’re talking about by using their name. names are treated as modifiers rather than as nouns, meaning that everyone is called jan [Name]. for example, my name would be jan Mitch Halley. <small>[https://twitter.com/hbmmaster/status/928085479630737408 (source)]</small>

if you want, you can try to approximate your name with TP phonology. the only letters are iueoamnptkswlj, which are all pronounced like they are in the International Phonetic Alphabet. a syllable is (C)V(n), and ti ji wu wo nn nm or consecutive vowels are not allowed. <small>[https://twitter.com/hbmmaster/status/928086190397550592 (source)]</small>

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<section begin="mute" />

[[mute|{{tok|mute}}]] is a modifier meaning “a lot” and a noun meaning “quantity”. TP’s numbering system is, objectively speaking, not very good. usually, mute is used to specify plurals; mi mute unambiguously means “us”. however, in the numbering system, mute means exactly 20. <small>[https://twitter.com/hbmmaster/status/928088631042101248 (source)]</small>

this means that mute could represent any amount larger than one, but sometimes is exactly twenty. honestly, you should avoid numbers in TP as much as possible. additionally, mute can be used similarly to a. pona a is “very good” and pona mute is “a lot of good”. <small>[https://twitter.com/hbmmaster/status/928088772247474178 (source)]</small>

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<section begin="ale" />

[[ale|{{tok|ale}}]] is a modifier meaning “all” or “countless” and a noun meaning “everything”. a simple metaphorical extension of the noun meaning allows it to also mean “universe” or “life”. <small>[https://twitter.com/hbmmaster/status/928089427133517825 (source)]</small>

you might notice that ale sounds a lot like ala, which could be a problem since those words have opposite meanings. to fix this, you can say ali instead. actually, fun fact, in the official 120 words, you can always replace e with i and o with u, and never run into any ambiguity! <small>[https://twitter.com/hbmmaster/status/928089567445516288 (source)]</small>

oh also ale is part of the numbering system (more like DUMBering system amirite) so it sometimes means one hundred. <small>[https://twitter.com/hbmmaster/status/928089749243547648 (source)]</small>

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<section begin="tu" />

[[tu|{{tok|tu}}]] is a modifier meaning “two” or “a couple”. we have now covered all the words for numbers, so I can now do a proper explanation of how numbers work. basically, you count wan, tu, tu wan, tu tu, luka, luka wan, luka tu, and so on. <small>[https://twitter.com/hbmmaster/status/928094038057717760 (source)]</small>

ten is luka luka, twenty is mute, one hundred is ale, and one thousand is ale ale ale ale ale ale ale ale ale ale. I’m sure you can see what the problem is here. <small>[https://twitter.com/hbmmaster/status/928094096014675968 (source)]</small>

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<section begin="kepeken" />

[[kepeken|{{tok|kepeken}}]] is a preposition meaning “using”. now, you might be thinking “that sounds like the sort of word you’d need to use a lot! why on earth would such a common preposition be three entire syllables long?” you might not be thinking that but I’m sure you are now. <small>[https://twitter.com/hbmmaster/status/928096275186274304 (source)]</small>

there isn’t an answer to the question I just felt like pointing it out. a lot of Tokiponists shorten this in some way to like “kepen” or something. I personally say something like “kep’ken” when I’m talking out loud. <small>[https://twitter.com/hbmmaster/status/928096352432807937 (source)]</small>

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<section begin="palisa" />

[[palisa|{{tok|palisa}}]] is a noun meaning “stick shaped object”. yeah, we’re getting into THESE words now. TP has this whole set of words that refer to objects that are shaped certain ways, and they’re mostly categories that don’t have good English names. <small>[https://twitter.com/hbmmaster/status/928100888429940737 (source)]</small>

I mean okay yes there is a certain thing that’s kinda shaped like a stick and yes there is a word in English that means shaped like that thing but honestly I already said sex before when I was defining unpa and I don’t feel like bringing it up again here EXCEPT I JUST DID OH NOOO <small>[https://twitter.com/hbmmaster/status/928100994298404864 (source)]</small>

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<section begin="pu" />

[[pu|{{tok|pu}}]] is a verb meaning “interact with Toki Pona: the Language of Good by Sonja Lang”. this word is literally only here so that the total number of words can be a nice even 120, and I absolutely love that. <small>[https://twitter.com/hbmmaster/status/928104238764511232 (source)]</small>

I love how TP doesn’t take itself seriously. it doesn’t pretend to be practical, and it doesn’t pretend to be logical. TP knows exactly what it is, and it’s the sort of language that would have the goal of having as few words as possible but then add an extra word as a joke. <small>[https://twitter.com/hbmmaster/status/928104521548619776 (source)]</small>

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