eliki

eliki
Pronunciation	/ˈe.li.ki/ 🔊
Usage	2023: Obscure (3%) Most speakers don't understand this word.
Book and era	No book
Part of speech	Content word

eliki is an obscure content word and nimi sin relating to immutable characteristics about oneself that can cause pain or distress. It was coined by kulupu telo mun in 2023.

Etymology

The word eliki is derived from Cherokee ᎡᎯᏍᏗ (ehisdi), meaning "pain, distress".

Semantic space

jan Salinsen (also known as waso suno) defined eliki as such:

trial, adversity; bittersweet; an experience with the quality of being deeply felt or important to oneself while defying classification as positive, negative, or a simply described admixture of positive and negative

It is intended "to help people describe a range of identities and experiences important to them" that may not be sufficiently described by pakala, pona, ike, nasa, or other words. As such, specific usage varies between speakers. eliki generally describes immutable characteristics that can cause pain or distress but should be viewed as value-neutral or have become part of one's identity. It is often used for disabilities for which a cure is unpresent or unwanted.

According to a document created by kulupu telo mun, the factors that define the semantic space of eliki appear to be:

• chronicity
• the long term effects of the experience
• the importance of the experience to identity
• nature vs nurture
• not implicitly having negative connotations, (more comfortable for some speakers?)
• moving away from implicitly negative language to describe body and behavior traits, combating ableism and internalized ableism
• being able to speak about deeper things such as poverty or systemic oppression with a focus on how they effect the person and how that can be mitigated
• still leaving room for the user to describe it as ike, pona, pakala, nasa, etc however they like

The philosophy of eliki is similar to identity-first language (for example, "autistic person", "Deaf person"), which certain disabled communities prefer to person-first language ("person with …"), because their eliki are an inseparable part of who they are.

sitelen pona

The sitelen pona glyph for eliki (eliki) consists of a dot between two vertical jagged lines, inspired by the glyphs for kon, pakala, telo. The inside dot represents the inherent or important nature of eliki to the user. It was designed by kulupu telo mun in 2023. As of December 2023, most sitelen pona fonts do not support eliki yet.

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sitelen sitelen

sitelen sitelen glyph for eliki

Just like every word, eliki can be written in sitelen sitelen by writing its syllable glyphs (ELIKIELIKI) enclosed in a capsule.

A dedicated word glyph for eliki was also designed by jan Salinsen in 2023. It was inspired by both the sitelen pona glyph and the sitelen sitelen glyph for telo (telotelo). It also features the phonetic radical for i (II) in the center. Using this word glyph instead of a capsule may be seen as experimental or nonstandard by some.