Toki Pona: Difference between revisions

# '''[[Phonology]]''': Letters are pronounced as in the {{w|International Phonetic Alphabet}}. Stress is on the start of each word. {{Indent|Most of the consonants are intuitive to English speakers. {{tp|j}} is an {{tp|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.}} {{Indent|There are well-defined [[phonotactics]], but that only matters for transliterating [[name]]s.}}<hr style="margin:0.5em 0;" />

# '''Modifiers''' (adjectives or adverbs) come after their heads (nouns or verbs). {{Indent|In {{sp|toki-pona|toki pona}}, {{sp|toki|toki}} ("language") is the head, and {{sp|pona|pona}} ("good") is the modifier. {{sp|sike loje mi|sike loje mi}} is literally "ball red my", and means "my red ball". 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 {{tp|[[pi]]}}, which groups the rest of the phrase. {{Indent|{{tp|tomo telo nasa}} means "strange water room", perhaps "weird washroom"; {{tp|tomo}} is modified by {{tp|telo}} and {{tp|nasa}}. {{tp|tomo pi telo nasa}} means "strange-water room", perhaps "pub", because alcohol is a liquid that makes people strange; {{tp|tomo}} is modified by {{tp|telo nasa}}, wherein {{tp|telo}} is modified by {{tp|nasa}}.}} {{Indent|{{tp|pi}} is a can of worms. Many speakers [[pin't|avoid it]].}}

# '''Predicates''' come after all subjects. {{tp|[[li]]}} starts each predicate, with two exceptions: If the subject is only {{tp|mi}} ("I", "we") or only {{tp|sina}} ("you"), {{tp|li}} is dropped. {{Indent|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 {{tp|mi moku}}, the word {{tp|moku}} can be dynamic, "to eat", or stative, "to be food" (less likely in this case).}}