Writing systems
This is a non-exhaustive list of the writing systems created for Toki Pona.
The Latin script, sitelen pona, and sitelen sitelen are the three writing systems featured in Toki Pona: The Language of Good. They are also the best known and most widely understood. However, tinkerers often invent other writing systems for personal or aesthetic expression, data compression, compatibility with other natural-language writing systems, neographic experiments with the limited vocabulary, or simply for fun.
Types of writing systems[edit | edit source]
- Abjad: Only consonants are written; the reader must infer vowels. (Impure abjads may have optional vowel diacritics or a limited number of vowel glyphs.)
- Abugida: Each symbol is a consonant with secondary vowel notation.
- Alphabet: Consonants and vowels are written separately. sitelen Lasina and the International Phonetic Alphabet are examples of alphabets.
- Logography: Each symbol is a word. sitelen pona and the word glyphs of sitelen sitelen are examples of logographies.
- Syllabary: Each symbol is a syllable or mora. The syllable glyphs of sitelen sitelen are an example of a syllabary.
List of writing systems[edit | edit source]
Name | Creator | Type | Description | Text sample |
---|---|---|---|---|
sitelen Lasina | jan Sonja | Alphabet | Latin script, broadly identical to the International Phonetic Alphabet | jan li pana e moku tawa sina. |
sitelen pona | jan Sonja | Logography | Widely used hieroglyph-inspired system with features such as combinable glyphs | jan li pana e moku tawa sina |
sitelen sitelen / sitelen suwi |
Jonathan Gabel (jan Josan Kapo) | Logography with alphasyllabary | ||
leko pona | jan Sowan | Logography (WIP) | 3D blocks in branching lines | Glyphs for pana, moku, tawa, sina unknown |
linja pi kama wan | Alphabet, compressed | |||
linja pi kute mute | jan Inkepa | Alphabet, compressed | compresses all letters into 6 symbols, like this: p=>a; n,s=>e; j,m=>i; k,t=>o; w=>u (l gets unchanged) | |
sitelen aeiou | Alphabet, compressed | iae ui aaea e ioou oaaa eiea. | ||
sitelen akesi | ilo Eko, with contributions from jan Sonja and jan Tepo | Logography, sitelenponido | Adaptation of sitelen pona in ASCII | ,O, > “n’ >> DC /\_ b
|
sitelen Aki | jan Misali | Syllabary | Each syllable is represented by a single ASCII character. | j l bn e Oq Tw sn
|
sitelen Alapi (Arabic script) |
Abjad | Adaption of the Arabic script | ين لي پنا ه مكو توا سنا | |
sitelen Anku | Alphasyllabary | Hangul
|
얀 리 파나 에 모구 타와 시나 | |
sitelen Antowi | jan Jeli | Logography, sitelenponido | Material design version of sitelen pona, as a font | |
sitelen Asi | jan Juli | Alphasyllabary | ||
sitelen Asuki | jan pi nimi ala | Logography, sitelenponido | Larger-scale ASCII adaptation of sitelen pona |
____ .-. \ \ | / \\ \__/ /| | | | \ __ \\ __ / | |---. '._.' / / | // / | / | | | / \ / V | // V | \ |_ '-' |
sitelen Diacritics | Abugida | |||
sitelen Elijan | jan Kita, tonsi Losi | Abugida | Adaptation of Elian script | |
sitelen Elina (Greek script) |
Alphabet | Adaption of the Greek script | γιαν λι πάνα ε μόκου τάγουα σίνα | |
sitelen Emosi | Logography, emoji | Multiple adaptations of emoji | ||
sitelen Enli / sitelen pi toki pona | Henrik Theiling | Logography | Words represented by Unicode symbols | ⵅ ↴ ✉ ↱ ☕︎ ⇥ ⇈ |
sitelen esun | jan Emelilijan | Alphabet | Interlace orthography inspired by Kēlen. Consonants in sitelen esun are combinations of loops and vowels are combinations of crossovers. | |
sitelen esun | jan Nikola | Logography | Words represented by logos | |
sitelen Ilakana (Hiragana) |
Syllabary | Adaptations of hiragana for Toki Pona | やん り ぱな え もく たわ しな | |
sitelen jaki | kulupu pi wawa unu | Logography | Lacks support for gender, color and numbers | |
sitelen jelo | waso Keli | Logography, emoji | 🧑▶️🙌⏩🍜🛫👆 | |
sitelen kalama | jan Amalan Makewalamala | Alphabet | An iteration-based design, with all symbols coming from the original sitelen pona script, but then iterated upon to become more abstract. Not to be confused with the featural script by the same name. | |
sitelen kalama | jan Kinlo Watesa | Featural | The shape of the letters resemble the positions of the tongue, teeth and lips. | |
sitelen kalama nanpa san | jan Sewaka (JupiterBoy100) | Alphabet | ||
sitelen Kansi (Chinese characters) | Logography | Multiple adaptations of Chinese characters; see sitelen Kansi § External links | 人为发向食于尔 | |
sitelen Kanujapa | Abugida | Adaptation of Canadian Aboriginal syllabics for Toki Pona | ᔭᓐ ᓕ ᐸᓇ ᐁ ᒧᑰ ᑕᕙ ᓯᓇ // ᔭᓐ ᓕ ᐸᓇ ᐄ ᒨᑯ ᑕᕙ ᓯᓇ | |
sitelen kasi linja | Nathan McCoy | Alphasyllabary | Includes a blocky style called sitelen kasi leko | |
sitelen Keme(Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs) | jan Emeli | Logography | Uses Ancient Egyptain hieroglyphs. Not exactly an adaptation, but some words kept their original meaning. | 𓀀𓇮𓂞𓏙𓇬𓂽𓂭 |
sitelen Kililisa (Cyrillic script) |
Alphabet | Adaptation of the Cyrillic script | йан ли пана е моку тава сина | |
sitelen ko | Logography | Cuneiform-style script | ||
sitelen kule | jan Mena | Logography | Assigns a colour to each word, with a sorting and color names based on jan Misali's proposed names for colours.[1] Names are indicated by a toggle "white". Sentences are indicated by line breaks or a double "white". | |
sitelen lape | jan Ali | Abugida | Syllables derived from sitelen pona | |
sitelen Lasina majuna | kulupu Menasewi | Alphabet | Joke adaptation of sitelen Lasina to resemble Latin inscriptions | IAN LI PANA E MOCV TAVA SINA ian lj pana e mocu taua sina |
Sitelen Latin Lili | 56inepenete | Reverse abjad | A system where each consonant becomes a diacritic added to a vowel | ąn ì âna e õú āȧ ïna. |
sitelen leko | soweli Apen | Alphasyllabary | ||
sitelen lili | jan Kokan Ato | Logography, sitelenponido | Alternate "streamlined" design of sitelen pona, as a font | |
sitelen lili lili | ilo Tani | Alphabet | Featural alphabet. Characters are based on how they are articulated in the mouth | |
sitelen lili sin | Abugida | |||
sitelen linja | jan Tiko | Alphasyllabary | ||
sitelen linja leko | Alphabet | |||
sitelen luka | jan Kaja | Logography, sitelenponido | sitelen pona adapted to be faster for handwriting | |
sitelen mun | jan Jonatan | Logography | Based on Gallifreyan | |
sitelen Munka | jan Kawin | Alphasyllabary | Glyph design inspired by Hangul | |
sitelen musi | Alphabet, compressed | |||
sitelen Musisan | Alphasyllabary | |||
sitelen nanpa | Abjad | Hex number writing system | 1D030650B042089075 | |
sitelen Nelan | Logography | |||
sitelen Nosu (Yi script) |
jan Lane | Logography | ꊿꆹꁵꀔꋠꁧꆏ | |
sitelen Nowa | jan Nowa | Alphasyllabary | Glyph design inspired by Arabic script, but combined similar to Hangul script | |
sitelen pakala | jan pi poki pi telo seli kasi | Alphabet | ||
sitelen pakala | jan Samsta36 | Alphabet | ||
sitelen palisa | Heav | Alphabet | ||
sitelen palisa | jan ilo Katapin | Logography | A 14-segment logography for Toki Pona | |
sitelen palisa ilo | Alphabet | |||
sitelen pi ike mute | jan pi sona lili | Alphabet, unsorted (WIP) | Each word is a stack of combining diacritical marks, reminiscent of Zalgo text | ͯͣ͆ ͬͥ ͩͣ͆ͣ ͤ ͫͦͨͧ ͭͣͪͣ ͮͥ͆ͣ |
sitelen pi ike mute | the motan | Alphabet, unsorted (WIP) | ýchė[ ėkėSUPA eauble i ė企ė[ ý⁷ ėg[ | |
sitelen pi jan Nuwoma | jan Nuwoma | Alphasyllabary | ||
sitelen pi linja lili | Alphabet, unsorted (WIP) | |||
sitelen pi linja mute ala | Alphabet, unsorted (WIP) | |||
sitelen pi linja wan | Alphabet, unsorted (WIP) | |||
sitelen pi nasin sijelo monsuta | Alphasyllabary | |||
sitelen pilin | Logography, emoji | 👤▶️📤⏩🍽️↪️👉 | ||
sitelen pipi | Plum of the Palette system | Logography, sitelenponido | A combination of Toki Pona and Hollow Night's writing aesthetics | |
sitelen pipi ante | kulupu kule | Logography, sitelenponido | A freeform writing system based on sitelen pipi | |
sitelen poka | Alphasyllabary | |||
sitelen pona | jan Mimoku | Alphasyllabary |
|
|
sitelen pona Juniko | Logography, sitelenponido | Various attempts at representing sitelen pona with Unicode symbols |
|
|
sitelen pona pona | Jack Humbert | Logography, sitelenponido | Adaptation of sitelen pona | |
sitelen pona Sonko | jan Ose | Logography, sitelenponido | Chinese seal script inspired sitelen pona | |
sitelen Precomposed Vowel Characters | Logography | Each word is exactly 1 Unicode character | ĩâởeÀǘỠ | |
sitelen Pusake (Futhark) |
Alphabet | Adaption of the Futhark runes | ᛃᚨᚾ ᛚᛁ ᛈᚨᚾᚨ ᛖ ᛗᛟᚲᚢ᛫ | |
sitelen Setasan | Alphabet, unsorted (WIP) | |||
sitelen Sewakana | Alphabet, unsorted (WIP) | |||
sitelen sike | akesi kon Nalasuni | Alphasyllabary | ||
sitelen sike | jan omch | Alphabet | ||
sitelen sinpin | jan Jese | Alphasyllabary | To be carved on rocks and wood like Elder Futhark | |
sitelen sinpin | jan soweli Apen | Alphasyllabary | ||
sitelen sinpin lili | jan soweli Apen | Alphasyllabary | Condensed form of sitelen sinpin—each face can fit a whole word. | |
sitelen soweli | Alphabet, unsorted (WIP) | |||
sitelen suwi ko | akesi kon Nalasuni | Alphasyllabary | For writing in sand | |
sitelen Tawi (Thai script) |
Alphabet | Adaptation of the Thai script | ยันลิปะนะเอะโมะกุตะวะซินะ | |
sitelen telo | Logography | Japanese aesthetic | ||
sitelen telo Momo | Logography, sitelenponido | Very stylised sitelen pona, as a font | ||
sitelen Tewa | jan Tewa | Logography | Intended for handwriting. Mixes logography and alphabet use of characters depending on diacritics. | |
sitelen toki pi linja wan | Alphabet, unsorted (WIP) | |||
sitelen uta | Alphasyllabary | |||
Tagbanwa script | nja Emikilikity | Abugida | Adapation of the Tagbanwa script (the vowel a is implied) | ᜶ᝬᝨ ᝮᝲ ᝩᝨ ᝡ ᝫᝳᝣᝳ ᝦᝯ ᝰᝲᝨ᜶ |
toki pona lili | jan Wija | Logography | Each word is 2 characters long. | JnLiPnEeMkTwSi |
Transliteration into Chinese | Logography, Chinese characters | Decided by a vote in the Chinese Toki Pona community on Tencent QQ. Most people primarily write Toki Pona using Latin script. | 人兮出[a]予乎食向尔 |
Notes[edit | edit source]
- ↑ The characters 出 and 予 have equal votes for the word pana in the first round, and are equally valid. One should be used instead of both.
See also[edit | edit source]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ jan Misali. "color naming scheme". seximal.net. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
Development and usage | jan Sonja · Toki Pona: The Language of Good (2014) · Tokiponidos · Software (Tools · Fonts) · suno pi toki pona · Toki Pona census · Toki Pona Dictionary (2021) · UCSUR · Linku · ISO 639-3 |
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Conventions | Phonology (Phonotactics) · Words (Tokiponization) · Grammar (Word order) · Social conventions · Writing systems (sitelen Lasina · sitelen pona · sitelen sitelen) · luka pona (sign language) · Number systems · Calendar systems · Styles (pu · pu-rism · ku · Nonstandard) |
Philosophy | Minimalism · Context · Circumlocution · Expression · Lexicalization · Multiple sentences · Comparisons |
Resources | Frequently asked questions · Courses · Dictionaries · Cheat sheets · Visual aids · Communities · Websites · Media |
pu | sitelen Lasina (Latin) · sitelen pona (sitelen-pona) · sitelen sitelen |
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Natlang | transliterationssitelen Kililisa (Cyrillic) · sitelen Kana (Japanese) · sitelen Anku (Hangul) · sitelen Kansi (Chinese) · sitelen Alapi (Arabic) · sitelen Iwisi (Hebrew) · sitelen Elina (Greek) |
Other | Toki Pona Script (dingbats) · sitelen pona pi jan Mimoku · ASCII syllabary · sitelen musi · sitelen ko (cuneiform) · sitelen telo · leko pona (3D) · sitelen mun (Gallifreyan) · nasin pi sitelen jelo (emoji) |