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[[File:Toki pona.svg|thumb|180px|The ''toki pona'' logo. It is retrofitted into ''[[sitelen pona]]'' as the combined glyph {{sp|toki-pona}}.]]
'''''toki pona''''' (literally "the language of good"; often titlecased in English as '''Toki Pona'''
== Language rules ==▼
# '''[[Phonology]]''': Letters are pronounced as in the [[International Phonetic Alphabet]]. Stress is on the start of each word.
#: Most of the consonants are intuitive to English speakers. ''j'' is an ''i'' with a swash tail, pronounced like English Y as in ''fjord'' and ''hallelujah''. Vowels are pronounced as in languages like Spanish, Japanese, and Esperanto.
#: There are well-defined [[phonotactics]], but that only matters for transliterating [[name]]s.
# '''Multiple subjects''' are separated with ''[[en]]''.
# '''Predicates''' come after all subjects. ''[[li]]'' starts each predicate, with two exceptions: If the subject is only ''mi'' ("I", "we") or only ''sina'' ("you"), ''li'' is dropped.
#: The main word of the predicate can be analyzed as a verb. By this analysis, Toki Pona has dynamic and stative verbs. In the sentence ''mi moku'', the word ''moku'' can be dynamic, "to eat", or stative, "to be food".
# '''Modifiers''' (adjectives or adverbs) come after their heads (nouns or verbs).
#:In ''<u>toki</u> pona'', ''toki'' ("language") is the head, and ''pona'' ("good") is the modifier. ''<u>sike</u> loje mi'' is literally "<u>ball</u> red my", and means "my red <u>ball</u>". This is typically the opposite of English, but there are counterexamples like "<u>someone</u> special", "<u>anything</u> new", "<u>time</u> immemorial", and "<u>Alcoholics</u> Anonymous".
# '''Phrasal modifiers''' start with ''[[pi]]'', which groups the rest of the phrase.
#: ''tomo telo nasa'' means "strange water room", perhaps "weird washroom"; ''tomo'' is modified by ''telo'' and ''nasa''. ''tomo pi telo nasa'' means "strange-water room", perhaps "pub", because alcohol is a liquid that makes people strange; ''tomo'' is modified by ''telo nasa'', wherein ''telo'' is modified by ''nasa''.
#: ''pi'' is a can of worms. Many speakers [[pin't|avoid it]].
# '''Direct objects''' come after their respective verb. ''[[e]]'' starts each direct object.
#: A basic sentence is ''ona li sona e toki pona''. ''ona'' ("they") is the subject, ''sona'' ("to know") is the verb marked by ''li'', and ''toki pona'' is the direct object marked by ''e''.
# '''Prepositional phrases''' use no special particle.
#: ''[[kepeken]]'', ''[[lon]]'', ''[[sama]]'', ''[[tawa]]'', and ''[[tan]]'' have [[preposition]] definitions. ''e'' can still change a preposition to a transitive verb. ''mi tawa ma'' means "I go to the land"; ''mi tawa e ma'' means "I move the land", or "''mi'' makes the ''ma'' into ''ma tawa''".
# '''[[Names|Proper names]]''' are modifiers and require a descriptive [[Headnouns|head]].
#: [[Sonja Lang]] becomes ''jan Sonja'', "the person Sonja". Canada becomes ''ma Kanata'', "the place Canada".
# '''Commands''' use ''[[o]]'' in place of ''li''. If the subject is only ''sina'', that subject can be dropped.
# '''Yes-or-no [[question]]s''' are formed with "verb ''ala'' verb", or with ''anu seme'' at the end. The main way to answer "yes" is to repeat the verb.
# '''[[Preverb]]s''' (auxiliary verbs) come before their main verb.
#: Only certain words have preverb definitions, mainly ''[[awen]]'' ("to continue"), ''[[kama]]'' ("to come", as in ''kama sona'', "to come to know", "to learn", or ''kama jo'', "to come to have", "to get"), ''[[ken]]'' ("to be able"), ''[[lukin]]'' / ''[[alasa]]'' ("to try"), ''[[sona]]'' ("to know how"), and ''[[wile]]'' ("to need / want").
# '''Context phrases''' come before the main sentence. ''[[la]]'' ends each context phrase.
== History ==
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''lipu pu'' was translated into Esperanto as ''Tokipono: La lingvo de bono''. The edition includes notes and words featured in ''lipu ku'', and additional Toki Pona texts.
▲== Language rules ==
== Community ==
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