leko pona

A three-dimensionally branching sentence, written in leko pona in cork

leko pona is a three-dimensional, nonlinear Toki Pona writing system created by jan Sowan. It is an ideography in which each word is a geometrically carved block.

Development

The first glyphs were sculpted in cork with a modeling knife. The whole vocabulary has been planned to be 3D-printed, wood-carved, and published in digital form. The first 120 glyphs have been cork-sculpted as of May 2023.

Grammar

Glyphs are placed in lines, which are usually straight but can be curved. These lines can intersect at right angles to branch the sentence, creating new grammatical features.

Modifiers and multiple particles can each be placed adjacent to the previous part of the sentence, which could avoid giving them priority, unlike in linear speech. In the case of modifiers, the branch can be analogous to a combined glyph in sitelen pona.

A word can be the subject of a branching clause, creating a subordinate clause, a grammatical structure not technically present in standard Toki Pona (where instead, ni is used to refer to the upcoming sentence).

• 

  A linear sentence, tomo li poki e kulupu

• 

  The same sentence with a modifier (lipu) and a second direct object (e soweli mute) added on a new axis

• 

  A sentence with two clauses. The direct object of one clause, kulupu li lukin e nena, is the subject of another, nena li sama lili leko.

Orientation

Glyphs are designed with standard orientations that may be easier to read and distinguish than other orientations. For li, e, la, en, and o, the large sides usually face perpendicular to the line direction. However, this is not obligatory.

Vocabulary

The nimi pu and some nimi sin are planned for leko pona. The following words have publicly known glyphs. Various other glyphs have been revealed in photographs, but it is unconfirmed which words they are for.

Word	Shape	Refs.References
ale	Loop along the edges of a cube that visits all vertices, representing "a kind of infinite ♾️ where the two strands don't touch."
anpa	Empty cell
ante	Empty cell
anu	2 interlocking corner shapes, each consisting of 3 square prisms that meet at one end
e	Square slab
en	Square slab, with a small square removed from a corner
jan	Empty cell
kala	This cell needs work. If you know about this topic, you can help us by editing it. (See all) "the holes on its side evoke gills; also other animals (akesi, pipi, jan...) share the same hole through the glyph"
kama	Empty cell
ken	This cell needs work. If you know about this topic, you can help us by editing it. (See all) "it resembles 'wile' so there's a theme, but both concepts (like others) are so abstract it is kinda hard to express visually"
kon	Skew hexagon along the edges of a cube
kulupu	Cube, with 8 small cubes at the corners
la	Square slab, with a square removed from the center
lawa	Empty cell
leko	Left-handed spiral staircase, with square steps on a 3×3 grid, including 2 landings
li	2 connected thin square slabs
lili	Small cube
lipu	4 stacked concentric square slabs, each diagonal from the next
lukin	3 orthogonal faces of a cube, with a square removed from the center of one face
lupa	Empty cell
mama	Cube, with a small cube at a corner
mani	This cell needs work. If you know about this topic, you can help us by editing it. (See all) "the stacked lines of mani evoke bills (the glyph was originally designed to be on its side) and the hollowness behind them evokes the lack of inherent value (money is empty of value unless you assign one to it)"
mi	Empty cell
moli	This cell needs work. If you know about this topic, you can help us by editing it. (See all) "composed of two M containing, again, emptiness."
mute	Cube, with 8 small cubes removed from the corners; "plus shaped" on each face
nasa	Empty cell
nasin	Empty cell
nena	4 stacked concentric square slabs, trending in size
ni	Corner shape, consisting of 3 square prisms that meet at one end, with a diagonal square prism from the corner
o	Square slab, with a square prism extruded through the center
olin	Empty cell
ona	Empty cell
open	Square pyramid, with a square slab at the tip
palisa	Square prism
pilin	Empty cell
poki	Empty cell
pona	Cube
sama	Empty cell
seli	Empty cell
sina	Empty cell
sinpin	Empty cell
sona	Empty cell
soweli	Empty cell
supa	Empty cell
tan	Empty cell
telo	Empty cell
toki	Petrial cube, with small cubes in the empty corners
tomo	Hollow cube, with a square removed from the center of each face
unpa	This cell needs work. If you know about this topic, you can help us by editing it. (See all) "both the hole in the middle and the vertical aspect could remind of intimate parts"
waso	Empty cell
wawa	Empty cell
weka	3 orthogonal faces of a cube, with a small cube in the empty corner

Gallery

• 

  Wooden glyphs

• 
• 
• 

  toki olin li seli e jan, written on a slight curve

• 

  leko · weka · kulupu
  lukin · mama · tomo

• 

  Tridimensional arrangement of cork glyphs

• 

  Sketch of 3 sentences with a common word

• 

  3D-printed glyphs

• 

  telo li kama anpa, in cork and 3D-printed glyphs

• 

  kulupu · anu · sama · open
  en · li · e · la

• 

  pilin · waso
  sijelo · o

• 

  Isometric views of 25 glyphs