kijetesantakalu

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kijetesantakalu
Pronunciation	/ˈki.je.te.san.ta.ka.lu//j/ sounds like English Y, as in "fjord" or "hallelujah".
Usage	2023: Common44-category system, Widespread66-category system (75% ↗︎ )2022: Widespread (73%)
Book and era	nimi ku suli (pre-pu)
Part of speech	Content word
Codepoint	󱦀 U+F1980

kijetesantakalu is a pre-pu word, coined by jan Sonja in 2009 as an April Fools' joke.

The longest Toki Pona word in use, it is syllabified as ki‧je‧te‧san‧ta‧ka‧lu. The syllable ta, or more rarely ka or san, might be pronounced with secondary stress.

Semantic space

kijetesantakalu was originally defined as "any animal from the Procyonidae family, such as raccoons, coatis, kinkajous, olingos, ringtails and cacomistles."

Some speakers expand the semantic space of kijetesantakalu to include other animals. A common expansion is "any animal from the Musteloidea superfamily, including raccoons, weasels, otters, skunks, and red pandas".

Rarely, kijetesantakalu is used in relation to April Fools' Day and practical jokes, referencing the word's origins.

Earnestness

kijetesantakalu was originally a joke word. The word is now used for other reasons as well, be it as a symbol of identity or simply liking the sitelen pona glyph. These speakers sometimes shorten it to kijete or kije, especially to use it as a headnoun; see Abbreviations § kijetesantakalu. Opinions on the word's seriousness vary between speakers.

sitelen pona

kijetesantakalukijetesantakalu sitelen pona glyph, by James Flear, used in linja pona

The most recognized sitelen pona glyph, kijetesantakalukijetesantakalu, was designed by James Flear in 2019. It won a glyph design contest for the font linja pona, and spread from there. The glyph is featured in Tokipono: La lingvo de bono, the Esperanto edition of lipu pu.

Other glyphs may be in use by a small minority of users.

• 

  kijetesantakalukijetesantakalu sitelen pona glyph variant, by Jack Humbert, used in sitelen pona pona

• 

  kijetesantakalukijetesantakalu sitelen pona glyph alternate proposal, by Elemenopi

• 

  kijetesantakalukijetesantakalu sitelen pona glyph alternate proposal, by Heresdevking

Number system

Toki Pona Dictionary features a joke number system named after this word, nasin nanpa kijetesantakalu (tan soweli nata), where each digit is kijetesantakalu with a different stressed syllable.

nasin kijetesantakalu

nasin kijetesantakalu was an April Fools' Day 2021 joke made by jan Sonja. In the joke post in ma pona pi toki pona, she wrote: "On this blessed anniversary of kijetesantakalu, I would like to formally clarify that en is a subject marker that is omitted at the beginning of a sentence. The default and recommended word order in Toki Pona has always been subject–verb–object, but other structures are possible for stylistic effect."

She provided examples of the six word orders in use.

• SVO: mi moku e kili.
• SOV: mi e kili li moku.
• VSO: li moku en mi e kili.
• VOS: li moku e kili en mi.
• OVS: e kili li moku en mi. kili li kama moku tan mi.
• OSV: e kili en mi moku. kili la mi moku e ona.

nasin kijetesantakalu is generally not used among speakers, but some people have adopted it in their own nasin.