a

This article is about the Toki Pona word. For the English word "a(n)", see Articles.

a
Pronunciation	/a/
Usage	2023: Core (99% → )2022: Core (99%)
Book and era	nimi pu ("synonym" in pu)
Part of speech	Particle
Codepoint	󱤀 U+F1900

a is a particle used to indicate emphasis and emotion.

Function

a is used to add emotion or emphasis to a word, phrase, or sentence. It may also be used alone as an interjection, meaning "ah", "oh", "uhm", among other words.

a　ni li pona tawa mi

a! ni li pona tawa mi.

Oh. This is good for me.

ni li musi a

ni li musi a!

This is so fun!

When a is reduplicated, it is used to express laughter.

a a a

a a a!

Hahaha!

Marking emphasis

The word a can be used either at the end of a sentence, adding emphasis (or emotion) to the entire sentence, or after a specific word or phrase to emphasize only that part of the sentence. When used at the end to emphasize the entire sentence, it can be seen as similar to using an exclamation mark in English.

Here are examples of a adding emphasis to different parts of the same sentence:

ona a li pali e tomo

ona a li pali e tomo.

She builds a house.

ona li pali a e tomo

ona li pali a e tomo.

She builds a house.

ona li pali e tomo a

ona li pali e tomo a.

She builds a house.

In the final sentence, the a can also be seen as emphasizing the entire sentence, depending on context. Some people prefer to only use a at the end of a sentence, and don't make the distinctions in the examples above.

Controversy

There is no clear community consensus on whether you need to use a li when the subject of a sentence is mi a or sina a. Some feel that a li is necessary because mi a is similar to mi kin or mi taso, which both require a li in standard Toki Pona. Others feel that a li shouldn't be used, because a is not a content word. In practice, both methods are used by different people.

In some cases, people will use a in a pi phrase to emphasize a specific modifier. (E.g. jan pi lili a, equivalent to jan lili with only the lili emphasized.) This method is rare and is seen as ungrammatical or nonstandard by some people.

pu

In the "Official Toki Pona Dictionary" section, the book Toki Pona: The Language of Good defines a as:

PARTICLE  (emphasis, emotion or confirmation)

Notably, the book only shows examples of a as an interjection or at the end of a sentence. The word isn't shown emphasizing a specific part of a sentence.

ku

For Toki Pona Dictionary, respondents in ma pona pi toki pona translated these English words as a:

ah⁵81–100% of respondents, oh⁵81–100% of respondents, ha⁵81–100% of respondents, ooh⁴61–80% of respondents, uh⁴61–80% of respondents, gosh⁴61–80% of respondents, whoa⁴61–80% of respondents, wow⁴61–80% of respondents, um³41–60% of respondents, huh³41–60% of respondents, uh-huh²21–40% of respondents, quite²21–40% of respondents, gasp²21–40% of respondents, really²21–40% of respondents, mm-hmm²21–40% of respondents, hmm²21–40% of respondents, sigh²21–40% of respondents

History

In pre-pu sources, a was only used as an emotion word and for laughter, not to mark emphasis. Instead, kin was used to mark emphasis. The word a was also only added at the end of a sentence, not in the middle.

In the 2014 book Toki Pona: The Language of Good, Sonja Lang attempted to merge a and kin into one word, adding "emphasis" to a's definition. The two words were not fully merged in community usage, but the meaning and usage of a did shift as a result of this. a is now widely used as an emphasis marker, and it can be used in the middle of a sentence, unlike pre-pu usage of a but similar to pre-pu usage of kin.

sitelen pona

The sitelen pona glyph for a (󱤀) is composed of the punctuation stem and the lowercase Latin letter A.

The letter A at the bottom is typically drawn in its single-story form ɑ, usually resembling the Latin letter's handwritten forms more than in type. However, the letter A can occasionally also be seen written as its double-story form a, or as the lower case Greek letter alpha (α, resembling a mirrored kala glyph). The punctuation stem can be drawn upright (aa) or at a diagonal (aa).

Compare the glyphs for kin, n, and o.

sitelen sitelen

The sitelen sitelen word glyph for a (aa) is a rounded shape with a flat bottom that includes a phonetic a radical (AA) and an uta radical (utauta, seen also in akesi: akesiakesi and toki: tokitoki).

The word may optionally also be written as the syllable glyph (AA).

Further reading

Resources

• Toki Pona: The Language of Good: Lesson 10
• jan Kekan San: Intejections
• jan Lentan: Lesson 7
• soweli Tesa: Lesson 10
• nasin toki pona: the emoticle a
• Jonathan Gabel: Interjections and Commands

Dictionaries

• "a" on lipu Linku
• "a" on lipu Wikipesija
• "a" on English Wiktionary