Animals
This is a description of animal words in Toki Pona.
Core and widespread words[edit | edit source]
akesi[edit | edit source]
  | |
| Pronunciation | /ˈa.ke.si/ (listen) |
|---|---|
| Usage | 2023: Core (99% ↗ ) 2022: Core (98%) |
| Book and era | nimi pu |
| Part of speech | Content word |
| Codepoint | U+F1901 |
akesi is a core word relating to herptiles, that is, reptiles and amphibians.
kala[edit | edit source]
  | |
| Pronunciation | /ˈka.la/ (listen) |
|---|---|
| Usage | 2023: Core (99% → ) 2022: Core (99%) |
| Book and era | nimi pu |
| Part of speech | Content word |
| Codepoint | U+F1914 |
kala is a core word relating to fish and other marine creatures.
kijetesantakalu[edit | edit source]
  | |
| Pronunciation | /ˈki.je.te.san.ta.ka.lu/ (listen)/j/ sounds like English Y, as in "fjord" or "hallelujah". |
|---|---|
| Usage | 2023: Widespread (75% ↗ ) 2022: Widespread (73%) |
| Book and era | nimi ku suli (pre-pu) |
| Part of speech | Content word |
| Codepoint | U+F1980 |
kijetesantakalu is a widespread word and nimi ku suli relating to family Procyonidae.
jan[edit | edit source]
  | |
| Pronunciation | /jan/ (listen)/j/ sounds like English 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 |
jan is a core word relating to humans.
pipi[edit | edit source]
  | |
| Pronunciation | /ˈpi.pi/ (listen) |
|---|---|
| Usage | 2023: Core (99% ↗ ) 2022: Core (98%) |
| Book and era | nimi pu |
| Part of speech | Content word |
| Codepoint | U+F1951 |
pipi is a core word relating to bugs.
soweli[edit | edit source]
  | |
| Pronunciation | /ˈso.we.li/ (listen) |
|---|---|
| Usage | 2023: Core (100% → ) 2022: Core (100%) |
| Book and era | nimi pu |
| Part of speech | Content word |
| Codepoint | U+F1962 |
soweli is a core word relating to animals, specifically land animals and beasts.
waso[edit | edit source]
  | |
| Pronunciation | /ˈwa.so/ (listen) |
|---|---|
| Usage | 2023: Core (99% → ) 2022: Core (99%) |
| Book and era | nimi pu |
| Part of speech | Content word |
| Codepoint | U+F1974 |
waso is a core word relating to flying and winged animals, including but not limited to birds. It also includes other animals, such as bats and pterodactyls.
Edge cases[edit | edit source]
Since the semantic spaces of words often overlap and depend on the speaker, there are some edge cases for some animals.
- Armadillos are perceived as scaly over fuzzy, leading to some people describing them as akesi over soweli, especially when using its armor as defense against predators.
- Elephants and rhinoceroses are not particularly hairy and have thickened, scaley skin but tend to be described as soweli over akesi, a similar thing happens to hippopotamuses.
- Ostriches and emus are unable to use their wings as a primary means of movement and have adapted to living on the ground while moving around very fast, leading speakers to describing them as soweli over waso.
- Penguins are also unable to use their wings as a primary means of movement in air and they have instead adapted to swimming. They may be described as kala.
Nonstandard words[edit | edit source]
kisa[edit | edit source]
| Pronunciation | /ˈki.sa/ |
|---|---|
| Usage | 2023: Obscure (4% ↗ ) 2022: Obscure (1%) |
| Book and era | No book (post-pu) |
| Part of speech | Content word |
kisa is an obscure joke word relating to cats. It was coined by kala Asi in 2021 and is derived from Russian киса (kisa).[1]
misa[edit | edit source]
| Pronunciation | /ˈmi.sa/ |
|---|---|
| Usage | 2023: Rare (13% ↗ ) 2022: Rare (10%) |
| Book and era | nimi ku lili (post-pu) |
| Part of speech | Content word |
misa is a rare word and nimi ku lili relating to the families Glires, which include rodents, squirrels, and rabbits; and Eulipotyphla, which includes moles, hedgehogs, and shrews. Capybaras may described as misa suli ("large rodent"). It was coined by misa Ewis in 2021 and is derived from Ukrainian мишка (myška), diminutive of миша (myša), meaning "mouse".[2]
molusa[edit | edit source]
 | |
| Pronunciation | /ˈmo.lu.sa/ |
|---|---|
| Usage | 2023: Obscure (4% ↗ ) 2022: Obscure (3%) This word is deprecated. |
| Book and era | No book (post-ku) |
| Part of speech | Content word |
molusa (molusa) is an obscure word relating to molluscs, such as snails, slugs, squids, octopi, and cuttlefish. It was coined by soweli Mokapen in 2021 and is derived from English mollusc, itself from Latin mollusca.[3] It is deprecated as of 2023.
opasan[edit | edit source]
opasan is a joke word relating to opossums, but also means "talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show stopping, spectacular, never the same, completely not ever been done before, totally unique, very very gay". The word was derived from English opossum.[4][5]
poni[edit | edit source]
 | |
| Pronunciation | /ˈpo.ni/ |
|---|---|
| Usage | 2023: Obscure (2% ↗ ) 2022: Obscure (1%) |
| Book and era | No book (post-pu) |
| Part of speech | Content word |
poni is an obscure word relating to ponies, mainly used as a replacement for jan for My Little Pony characters, who make substitutions like "everypony" for "everybody" in English media. It was coined by jan Kita in 2020.[6]
silapa[edit | edit source]
silapa, also written in one line as si\i\ilapa, is a joke word referring to giraffes. It was coined by jan Kita in 2021 to "make life even harder for sitelen pona font makers by introducing a vertically extendable glyph".[7] The word can be extended vertically by extending the i (or originally by extending the a) as shown in the example below (in the Latin script):
silapa mi li lape. taso ona li pini e lape la mi en si
i
i
ilapa mi li tawa
sipije[edit | edit source]
This words refers to the Autism Creature (aka Yipee) and exists in some other spelling variations.sisi[edit | edit source]
Any camelid, referring to Jiji from the video game Baba Is You.sutopatikuna[edit | edit source]
 | |
| Pronunciation | /ˈsu.to.pa.ti.ku.na/ |
|---|---|
| Usage | 2023: Obscure (8% ↗ ) 2022: Obscure (7%) |
| Book and era | nimi ku lili (pre-pu, marginal phonology) |
| Part of speech | Content word |
sutopatikuna is an obscure joke word with marginal phonology relating to platypuses (Ornithorhynchus anatinus). It is derived from Croatian čudnovati kljunaš, literally meaning "strange beak". It was coined by Alexandre Baudry as an April Fools' joke in 2009.[8]
wasoweli[edit | edit source]
| Pronunciation | /ˈwa.so.we.li/ |
|---|---|
| Usage | 2023: Obscure (6% ↗ ) 2022: Obscure (3%) |
| Book and era | nimi ku lili (post-pu) |
| Part of speech | Content word |
wasoweli is an obscure word and nimi ku lili relating to animals with characteristics similar to both birds (waso) and land creatures (soweli). Some examples include bats, emus, and ostriches.
-isa family[edit | edit source]
The -isa family is a group of words with the ending -isa or similar endings, derived in a similar fashion to the word misa. It consists of mostly joke words (with the exception of misa itself). The list of words is as follows:
- kisa — cat (coined by kala Asi)
- isa – holdable fluffy animal (coined by jan Kita)
- kamosa – duck (coined by jan kijeto)
- kosa – goat (coined by jan Kita)
- lisa — fox (coined by jan Kita)
- pelusa – plushie (coined by jan Kita)
- usa — rabbit (coined by jan Alu)
- wisa — dog (coined by kapesi Pake)
Words for "dog"[edit | edit source]
There are several words for "dog" created on separate occasions.- wisa (part of the -isa family)
- tasun as well as stretched versions of the word (usually by writing it with more than one "a") - this word refers specifically to dachshunds, known for their long bodies, as a challenge to any fontmaker to include the word in all its stretchy variations
- pela, in reference to Chomsky rejecting Sacha Baron Cohen's suggestion that "pela" can be a word for "dog" in a language
- kina for any canines
- matula for canines
- lupelo by jan jepi Tesamo[9]
See also[edit | edit source]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ kala Asi [@kala_asi]. (23 April 2021). [Message posted in the
#ijo-antechannel in the ma pona pi toki pona Discord server]. "kisa - cat <- киса". Discord. - ↑ misa Ewis [@eris, back for a bit#9685]. (25 February 2021). [Message posted in the
#jakichannel in the ma pona pi toki pona Discord server]. Discord. - ↑ soweli Mokapen [@thegreatestaspen]. (5 July 2021). [Message posted in the
#toki-ponachannel in the ma pona pi toki pona Discord server]. "hm i am considering making a nimisin for mollusks, if that isn’t already a thing[.] i was thinking “molu” at first but that could really easily be mistaken for moli or moku, so maybe smth like “molusu” or “molu”". Discord. - ↑ [@smoothied]. (21 February 2021). [Message posted in the
#pali-musichannel in the ma pona pi toki pona Discord server]. Discord. - ↑ [@smoothied]. (23 February 2021). [Message posted in the
#jakichannel in the ma pona pi toki pona Discord server]. Discord.opasan – ~post-pu, humorous~ talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show stopping, spectacular, never the same, completely not ever been done before, totally unique, very very gay, opossum
← English opossum ← Powhatan ? - ↑ jan Kita [@.hecko]. (7 December 2020). [Message posted in the
#ijo-antechannel in the ma pona pi toki pona Discord server]. Discord. - ↑ jan Kita [@.hecko]. (15 September 2021). [Message posted in the
#linja-sikethread in the#pali-musichannel in the ma pona pi toki pona Discord server]. ":nimisin: 'silapa' – giraffe; to make life even harder for sitelen pona font makers by introducing a vertically extendable glyph". Discord. - ↑ Baudry, Alexandre (1 April 2009). "RE: New official word / Nova oficiala vorto". "Dear Sonja, That's a great idea, but if you do so, you need also to add a special word for the Platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus). I would suggest the word "sutopatikuna" from the croatian word [č]udnovati kljuna¹. […]". Toki Pona Forums. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
- ↑ jan jepi Tesamo (27 August 2023). nimi sin tawa “dog and canines” lon toki pona. kulupu lipu pona.