a

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a in sitelen pona
a in sitelen sitelen
Pronunciation /a/
Usage 2024: Core (100% ↗︎ )2023: Core (99% → )2022: Core (99%)
Book and era nimi pu ("synonym" in pu)
Part of speech Particle
Codepoint 󱤀 U+F1900

a is a particle used to indicate emphasis and emotion.

Etymology[edit | edit source]

The word a is derived from sound symbolism or onomatopoeia.[1]

Function[edit | edit source]

a is used to add emotion or emphasis to a word, phrase, or sentence. It may also be used alone as an interjection, meaning "ah", "oh", "uhm", among other words.

a ni li pona tawa mi

a! ni li pona tawa mi.

Oh. This is good for me.

ni li musi a

ni li musi a!

This is so fun!

When a is reduplicated, it is used to express laughter.

a a a

a a a!

Hahaha!

Marking emphasis[edit | edit source]

The word a can be used either at the end of a sentence, adding emphasis (or emotion) to the entire sentence, or after a specific word or phrase to emphasize only that part of the sentence. When used at the end to emphasize the entire sentence, it can be seen as similar to using an exclamation mark in English.

Here are examples of a adding emphasis to different parts of the same sentence:

ona a li pali e tomo

ona a li pali e tomo.

She builds a house.

ona li pali a e tomo

ona li pali a e tomo.

She builds a house.

ona li pali e tomo a

ona li pali e tomo a.

She builds a house.

In the final sentence, the a can also be seen as emphasizing the entire sentence, depending on context. Some people prefer to only use a at the end of a sentence, and don't make the distinctions in the examples above.

Interaction with li and pi[edit | edit source]

When the subject of a sentence is mi a or sina a, there is no consensus on whether the particle li is needed afterward or can be dropped. As an argument for including li, the phrase mi a is similar to mi kin and mi taso, which both require li in most speakers' style of speech. Others feel that dropping li is more natural, as a adds no semantic or grammatical information, and is arguably more of a spoken prosody marker than a morpheme. Both methods are used in practice.

Rarely, pi phrases have been used to isolate a to a specific modifier (for example, jan pi lili a,[2] equivalent to jan lili a but with only lili emphasized). Despite being consistent with the mi a li style, this method is much less common, and is sometimes seen as nonstandard or even ungrammatical.

Overall, there is no consensus on whether a triggers particles that depend on whether modifiers are present in a phrase.

Dictionary entries[edit | edit source]

pu[edit | edit source]

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

PARTICLE  (emphasis, emotion or confirmation)

Notably, the book only shows examples of a as an interjection or at the end of a sentence. The word isn't shown emphasizing a specific part of a sentence.

ku[edit | edit source]

For Toki Pona Dictionary, respondents in ma pona pi toki pona translated these English words as a:[3]

ah5, oh5, ha5, ooh4, uh4, gosh4, whoa4, wow4, um3, huh3, uh-huh2, quite2, gasp2, really2, mm-hmm2, hmm2, sigh2

History[edit | edit source]

In pre-pu sources, a was only used as an emotion word and for laughter, not to mark emphasis.[4][5] Instead, kin was used to mark emphasis.[6] The word a was also only added at the end of a sentence, not in the middle.

In the 2014 book Toki Pona: The Language of Good, Sonja Lang attempted to merge a and kin into one word,[7] adding "emphasis" to a's definition. The two words were not fully merged in community usage, but the meaning and usage of a did shift as a result of this. a is now widely used as an emphasis marker, and it can be used in the middle of a sentence, unlike pre-pu usage of a but similar to pre-pu usage of kin.

sitelen pona[edit | edit source]

The sitelen pona glyph for a (󱤀) is composed of the punctuation stem and the lowercase Latin letter A.

The letter A at the bottom is typically drawn in its single-story form ɑ, usually resembling the Latin letter's handwritten forms more than in type. However, the letter A can occasionally also be seen written as its double-story form a, or as the lower case Greek letter alpha (α, resembling a mirrored kala glyph). The punctuation stem can be drawn upright (a) or at a diagonal (a).

Compare the glyphs for kin, n, and o.

sitelen sitelen[edit | edit source]

The sitelen sitelen word glyph for a (a) is a rounded shape with a flat bottom that includes a phonetic a radical (A) and an uta radical (uta, seen also in akesi: akesi and toki: toki).

Like with any monosyllabic word, the word a may also optionally be written as a syllable glyph (A).

References[edit | edit source]

  1. "Word Origins". tokipona.org. Archived from the original on 8 August 2002.
  2. jan Kasape. (14 May 2023). "kulupu Kanse la jan meli li kama ken" (in Toki Pona). lipu tenpo. Retrieved 14 May 2023. "jan li kama unpa li kama jo insa e jan pi lili a li wile e ona ala la seme li ken".
  3. Lang, Sonja. (18 July 2021). Toki Pona Dictionary. Illustrated by Vacon Sartirani. Tawhid. ISBN 978-0978292362. p. 199.
  4. jan Pije. "Lesson 9". o kama sona e toki pona!. Archived from the original on 30 June 2007. "a is a word that expresses emotion or laughter.".
  5. "Classic Word List (Improved!)". tokipona.net. Archived from the original on 8 January 2013. "interj ah, ha, uh, oh, ooh, aw, well (emotion word)".
  6. "Classic Word List (Improved!)". tokipona.net. Archived from the original on 8 January 2013. "mod also, too, even, indeed (emphasizes the word(s) before it)".
  7. Sonja Lang [@sonjalang]. (24 February 2021). Message in #learn-toki-pona-1. ma pona pi toki pona. Discord. Retrieved 14 May 2024. "for better or worse, i had the idea to merge kin and a in my book, but i don't think it's really taken off in usage. i personally use a and kin differently.".

Further reading[edit | edit source]

Resources[edit | edit source]

Dictionaries[edit | edit source]