User:Jan Pensa/tuki puna

The subject of this section is just for fun. It might not be meant or appropriate for serious use.

Here's my own take on a three-vowel system for Toki Pona, which I call Tuki Puna. I made it once long ago (on the night of 10 May 2017, to be exact) as a fun little linguistic puzzle to pass the time. I've never used it seriously in any way, but it was fun to make, and like the way it turned out. It's a little weird to read, but I think it's actually pretty easy to understand when spoken aloud.

These were all my own ideas, but I probably wasn't the first to come up with most of them. I later learned about Tuki Punas from other people, who tended to use very similar solutions - including Sonja herself, even. (Discord link to her message about it on ma pona pi toki pona)

Anyway, here's how it works:

Conversion rules

As of 2024, all non-obscure Toki Pona words can be converted to a unique Tuki Puna word with just 3 simple rules. (Well, all words except for ale/ali, which are no longer distinguished.)

te becomes ta, and je becomes ja (to avoid ti and ji)
The exact word ken becomes kan, and the word ko becomes ka (to avoid collision with kin and ku)
(These ken and ko substitutions do not apply when it's a part of another word, such as in kepeken or namako.)
In all other cases, e becomes i and o becomes u.

(The second rule can be optionally ignored if you don't use kin or ku, or don't care about the ambiguity. And of course, you can also ignore rule 1 if you don't care about ji and ti.)

This is fully functional, but with a few more tweaks, I think some Tuki Puna words become even better:

Optional variant of rule 1 (which I prefer)

If a word contains te or je, all e's in that word become a

With this rule, sitelen becomes sitalan instead of sitalin, and lete becomes lata instead of lita, which I think sounds better and more recognizable. As of 2024, these are the only two non-obscure words that are affected by this change.

In names that contain te or je, you might want to decide on a case by case basis whether to replace an e. For example, for ma Pesije I personally like Pasija better than Pisija, but for ma Netelan I like Nitalan better than Natalan.

Optional extra rule (which I prefer)

1¾. If a word ends in an -e, you're allowed to change e to a instead of i in all but the first syllable.

In many cases I think this makes the word more recognizable, especially if there's already an i in the Toki Pona word. E.g. wile can become wila instead of wili, and ike can be ika instead of iki.

If there's also another e in the Toki Pona word, I'd personally avoid it. But if you like the sound of sima (from seme) and misikaka/misikika (from misikeke), go right ahead.

Generalization of rule 2

If two words become homonyms due to an e/i or o/u merger, the e or o in question becomes a instead.

This method can be used to distinguish to from tu, po from pu, even jo from ju if you want. As of early 2024, the only word triplets in Linku or ku that can't be fully disambiguated this way are kin/ken/kan and a/o/u.

Example texts

akesi li wile lon nena (excerpt)

Here are the first 20 lines of akesi li wile lon nena by jan Kita converted to Tuki Puna:

Tuki Puna	Toki Pona
akisi li wila lun nina kasi puna li lun una tasu nina li suli muta una li kan ala tawa una li tuki tawa wasu "wasu u puna i mi" "sina wila i puna simi" "mi wila lun nina suli u tawa una i mi" "tasu mi wasu lili a luka mi li wawa ala mi tasu la mi siwi mi in sina la anpa" akisi li lukin i wasu suli li sama luka una "mi u suna i ni pakala la mi suna ala mi alasa i nasin anta awin la sina wasu puna" akisi li tawa ma anta	akesi li wile lon nena kasi pona li lon ona taso nena li suli mute ona li ken ala tawa ona li toki tawa waso "waso o pona e mi" "sina wile e pona seme" "mi wile lon nena suli o tawa ona e mi" "taso mi waso lili a luka mi li wawa ala mi taso la mi sewi mi en sina la anpa" akesi li lukin e waso suli li sama luka ona "mi o sona e ni pakala la mi sona ala mi alasa e nasin ante awen la sina waso pona" akesi li tawa ma ante

sewi tu (excerpt)

Here are the first few paragraphs of the first chapter of my own mythological-style story monsuta pi moku nimi, converted to Tuki Puna:

Tuki Puna	Toki Pona
tanpu upin la iju wan tasu li lun. una li siwi. una li wan. tasu una li wila wan tasu ala. una li pana i kun tan insa una, li pana i nimi tawa kun ni. nimi ni li ju i wawa siwi, li pana i wawa tawa kun. siwi li pana sin i nimi. ni la kun li ju i wawa siwi pi nimi tu. sama ni la siwi li pana li pana li pana i nimi. una li pana i nimi ali tawa kun, li pana i nimi mi, i nimi sina kin, i nimi ali pi tanpu ali. nasin ni la kun pi nimi ali li kama lun, li kama wawa sama siwi pi nimi ala. siwi tu li lun la, una li kan kama wan lun pali suli, li kan pali i iju muta a. siwi pi nimi ala in siwi pi nimi ali li pali i ma suli, i talu suli, i kun suli. una li pali i mun ali, li pali i kasi i suku. una li pali i sijalu muta kin. iju sijalu ni li kan pilin, li kan suna, li kan muku i kun li kan pana i kun. tasu una li lili muta li wawa ala a. pali siwi ni li pini la siwi pi nimi ala li kama wila lapa. una li kama anpa lun ma li pini i pilin una i suna una i tawa una. lapa ni li wawa a li awin lun tanpu ali. ni li muli nanpa wan. ma lapa siwi la kasi li kama tan ma, li kama wawa li kama suli a tan wawa siwi insa.	tenpo open la ijo wan taso li lon. ona li sewi. ona li wan. taso ona li wile wan taso ala. ona li pana e kon tan insa ona, li pana e nimi tawa kon ni. nimi ni li jo e wawa sewi, li pana e wawa tawa kon. sewi li pana sin e nimi. ni la kon li jo e wawa sewi pi nimi tu. sama ni la sewi li pana li pana li pana e nimi. ona li pana e nimi ale tawa kon, li pana e nimi mi, e nimi sina kin, e nimi ale pi tenpo ale. nasin ni la kon pi nimi ale li kama lon, li kama wawa sama sewi pi nimi ala. sewi tu li lon la, ona li ken kama wan lon pali suli, li ken pali e ijo mute a. sewi pi nimi ala en sewi pi nimi ale li pali e ma suli, e telo suli, e kon suli. ona li pali e mun ale, li pali e kasi e soko. ona li pali e sijelo mute kin. ijo sijelo ni li ken pilin, li ken sona, li ken moku e kon li ken pana e kon. taso ona li lili mute li wawa ala a. pali sewi ni li pini la sewi pi nimi ala li kama wile lape. ona li kama anpa lon ma li pini e pilin ona e sona ona e tawa ona. lape ni li wawa a li awen lon tenpo ale. ni li moli nanpa wan. ma lape sewi la kasi li kama tan ma, li kama wawa li kama suli a tan wawa sewi insa.

Wordlist

A comparison between Toki Pona and Tuki Puna.

Words that remain unchanged have a gray background. Words that only had a simple e→i or o→u substitution (conversion rule 3) are marked with yellow. Words that had a special substitution (conversion rules 1, 2, and 1¾) are marked with blue.

Out of 140 words on this list, 70 remain unchanged, 52 have simple substitution, and 18 have special substitution (in the "recommended" column).

Toki Pona	Tuki Puna
Toki Pona	recommended	alternatives
a	a
akesi	akisi
ala	ala
alasa	alasa
ale / ali	ali
anpa	anpa
ante	anta	(anti)
anu	anu
awen	awin
e	i
en	in
epiku	ipiku
esun	isun
ijo	iju
ike	ika	iki
ilo	ilu
insa	insa
jaki	jaki
jan	jan
jasima	jasima
jelo	jalu	(jilu)
jo	ju	ja
kala	kala
kalama	kalama
kama	kama
kasi	kasi
ken	kin
kepeken	kipikin
kijetesantakalu	kijatasantakalu	(kijitisantakalu)
kili	kili
kin	kin
kipisi	kipisi
kiwen	kiwin
ko	ka	ku
kokosila	kukusila
kon	kun
ku	ku
kule	kula	kuli
kulupu	kulupu
kute	kuta	(kuti)
la	la
lanpan	lanpan
lape	lapa	lapi
laso	lasu
lawa	lawa
leko	liku
len	lin
lete	lata	lita, (liti)
li	li
lili	lili
linja	linja
linluwi	linluwi
lipu	lipu
loje	luja	(luji)
lon	lun
luka	luka
lukin	lukin
lupa	lupa
ma	ma
majuna	majuna
mama	mama
mani	mani
meli	mili
meso	misu
mi	mi
mije	mija	(miji)
misikeke	misikiki	misikaka, misikika
moku	muku
moli	muli
monsi	munsi
monsuta	munsuta
mu	mu
mun	mun
musi	musi
mute	muta	(muti)
n	n
namako	namaku
nanpa	nanpa
nasa	nasa
nasin	nasin
nena	nina
ni	ni
nimi	nimi
noka	nuka
o	u
oko	uku
olin	ulin
ona	una
open	upin
pakala	pakala
pali	pali
palisa	palisa
pan	pan
pana	pana
pi	pi
pilin	pilin
pimeja	pimija
pini	pini
pipi	pipi
poka	puka
poki	puki
pona	puna
pu	pu
sama	sama
seli	sili
selo	silu
seme	simi	sima
sewi	siwi
sijelo	sijalu	(sijilu)
sike	sika	siki
sin	sin
sina	sina
sinpin	sinpin
sitelen	sitalan	sitalin, (sitilin)
soko	suku
sona	suna
soweli	suwili
su	su
suli	suli
suno	sunu
supa	supa
suwi	suwi
tan	tan
taso	tasu
tawa	tawa
telo	talu	(tilu)
tenpo	tanpu	(tinpu)
toki	tuki
tomo	tumu
tonsi	tunsi
tu	tu
unpa	unpa
uta	uta
utala	utala
walo	walu
wan	wan
waso	wasu
wawa	wawa
weka	wika
wile	wila	wili

My process

The path I took to my solution. Documenting it for the one or two people who actually think it's interesting.

2017

I took a list of 125 words that I personally viewed as common at the time (123 pu words plus kipisi and monsuta), and first converted all e to i and o to u to see what that would do. Of course, that resulted in a lot of ji and ti syllables. Especially miji (from mije) and sijilu (from sijelo) were very bad in my opinion. It also caused ken and kin to clash and become homonyms.

My first idea to get rid of ti and ji was to convert them to si and i (or wi when it's not the first syllable). When I tried this to see what would happen, this caused more homonyms: ilo and jelo both became ilu, selo and telo both became silu, and mute became musi. Also, on second thought I didn't like how words became a lot less recognizable from this. sinpu and miwi don't sound a lot like tenpo and mije.

After looking a bit at individual cases, it seemed a promising idea to convert all je and te to ja and ta. I was expecting that this would cause clashes with other words that I would have to solve, but to my surprise, it didn't! That one change solved all ji and ti problems in one fell swoop.

Then the only homonyms that were left were ken and kin. Taking a hint from the te→ta solution, I decided to change ken to kan. This seemed pretty appropriate, considering that ken is a descendant of the word "can", and I had recently learned that kan is also a word in Singlish. (Actually, in Singlish /kɛn/ means "can" and /kan/ means "can't". But, eh, close enough.)

Looking through the list again, I noticed that lete became lita, which felt a little weird. So I came up with the optional rule that e syllables adjacent to je and te could also become a.

With that, it was all done and good.

That is, until ku came around 4 years later.

2021 onward

Having ku already be a popular word made it feel very weird to use ku to mean ko. But I once I realized that, I quickly decided that the same ken→kan solution could be used for ko→ka. It's less than ideal, but hey, it works.

And now in 2024, right when I thought I finished writing this document, I noticed that wila and sika sound a lot more recognizable to me than wili and siki, so I came up with the extra "1¾" conversion rule.

In time, I guess Sonja's reserved word ju could also become a problem, clashing with jo. And if she starts using u, that would be even worse, because all the words that are just vowels (u, i and a) are already taken. But until Sonja decides to use ju, I think it feels weird *not* to use ju for jo in Tuki Puna.