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 relating to animals in the family Procyonidae. It was coined by Sonja Lang as an April Fools' joke in 2009. It is the longest Toki Pona word currently in use. Due to the word's length, it is often be pronounced with secondary stress on the syllable ta, or more rarely ka or san.

Etymology

The word kijetesantakalu is derived from Finnish kierteishäntäkarhu meaning "kinkajou", from kierteinen ("helical"), häntä ("tail"), and karhu ("bear").

Semantic space

kijetesantakalu was originally defined by Lang 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

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

The most recognized sitelen pona glyph (kijetesantakalu) 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 which may be in use by a small minority of users include the ones below:

• 

  Glyph variant, by Jack Humbert used in sitelen pona pona

• 

  Glyph alternate proposal by Elemenopi

• 

  Glyph alternate proposal by Heresdevking

sitelen sitelen

The sitelen sitelen glyph for kijetensatakalu was designed by jan Saki in 2021.

Number system

The Toki Pona Dictionary features a joke number system named after this word, nasin nanpa kijetesantakalu (tan soweli nata), where each digit is the word "kijetesantakalu" with a different stressed syllable. The stress isn't notated in writing.

nasin kijetesantakalu

nasin kijetesantakalu was a proposed analysis of Toki Pona's syntax made by Sonja Lang as an April Fools' joke in 2021. In her post on the ma pona pi toki pona Discord server, 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. However, some have adopted it in their own nasin.