Toki Pona: Difference between revisions

# '''[[Phonology]] and Modifiers''': Letters are pronounced as in the {{w}}. Stress is on the start of each word. 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 and Esperanto. There are well-defined [[phonotactics]], but that only matters for transliterating [[name]]s. Modifiers (adjectives or adverbs) come after their heads (nouns or verbs). {{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", and "<u>time</u> immemorial"

# '''[[Names|Proper names]]''' are modifiers and require a descriptive [[Headnouns|head]]. {{Indent|[[Sonja Lang]] becomes {{tp|jan Sonja}}, "the person Sonja". Canada becomes {{tp|ma Kanata}}, "the place Canada".}}

# '''Multiple subjects''' are separated with {{tp|[[en]]}}.<hr style="margin:0.5em 0;" />

# '''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).