jan

jan
Pronunciation	/jan/ (listen)/j/ sounds like Y, as in "fjord" or "hallelujah".
Usage	2023: Core (100% ↗ ) 2022: Core (99%)
Book and era	nimi pu
Part of speech	Content word
Codepoint	󱤑 U+F1911

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jan is a core content word relating to people and humans.

Etymology

The word jan was derived from Cantonese 人 (Jyutping: jan⁴), meaning "person, someone".

Semantic space

The semantic space of jan includes both humans (members of the species Homo sapiens) and people (the definition of which is less concrete). These concepts usually coincide, but not always; it's debatable whether jan applies to aliens, robots, talking animals, or tokiponists with headnouns other than jan, and whether groups containing them should be addressed as jan. As such, some speakers avoid using it as a general term.

Many people use jan as the headnoun of their name. Non-Tokiponists often mistake this for the name Jan and refer to them as such. A simplified explanation that avoids getting into the philosophy and grammar of Toki Pona names is that the jan acts as an honorific.

pu

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

NOUN  human being, person, somebody

ku

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

person⁵81–100% of respondents, human⁵81–100% of respondents, people⁵81–100% of respondents, anybody⁴61–80% of respondents, dude⁴61–80% of respondents, anyone³41–60% of respondents, character³41–60% of respondents, somebody³41–60% of respondents, guy³41–60% of respondents, being³41–60% of respondents, individual²21–40% of respondents, civilian²21–40% of respondents, whoever²21–40% of respondents, citizen²21–40% of respondents, participant²21–40% of respondents, Hominidae²21–40% of respondents, personal²21–40% of respondents

sitelen pona

The sitelen pona glyph for jan is a pictogram of a human head and shoulders. The glyphs for mije and meli are derived from it and are variations with wider shoulders and long hair, respectively.