pi
Pronunciation | /pi/ |
---|---|
Usage | 2023: Core (99% ↗︎ )2022: Core (98%) |
Book and era | nimi pu |
Part of speech | Particle |
Codepoint | U+F194D |
pi is a particle used for regrouping modifiers. The resulting phrase that follows it is called a pi phrase.
Function
Modifiers, by default, apply to whole phrase that precedes it.[a]
jan ponajan pona
good person
jan pona mutejan pona mute
many good people
The particle pi marks the following word as a new head, which takes its own modifiers.
jan pi(pona mute)jan pi pona mute
very good person
The effect is similar to hyphenating an adjective phrase in English.[1] For this reason, pi needs to be followed by at least two content words: the new head and a modifier applying to it. The particle is not need if there is only one word following it.
tomo telo nasatomo telo nasa
strange water room (the room is weird)
weird bathroom
tomo pi(telo nasa)tomo pi telo nasa
strange-water room (the liquid is weird)
bar, pub
It is not possible to close a pi phrase, beyond using a higher-priority particle or preposition or ending the sentence. Modifiers that apply to the first word should instead be moved before the pi phrase:
jan pi(pana sona-ike)jan pi pana sona ike
teacher of evil information (literally, "bad-knowledge-giving person")
jan-ike pi(pana sona)jan ike pi pana sona
bad teacher (literally, "bad knowledge-giving person")
Multiple pi phrases
Even though it is not defined in pu, some speakers use multiple pi phrases modifying a single phrase. This carries a risk of ambiguity as to whether the second pi is contained within the first or not. For example, in the following sentence, it is unclear whether the book written in English or the information is about the English language.
lipu pi(sona mute) pi(toki [ijo ni li ike])lipu pi sona mute pi toki Inli
English much-knowledge book
The possible structures are:
- Flat pi
- lipu pi sona mute pi toki Inli
- Nested pi
- lipu pi sona mute pi toki Inli
jan Lope argues that, like li and e, both pi phrases apply equally to the first noun in the phrase, rather than nesting.[2] As an example, he gives:
kulupu pi(kalama musi) pi(ma [ijo ni li ike]) li ponakulupu pi kalama musi pi ma Inli li pona.
The English rock band is good.
The ambiguity is whether it's an English band that plays some sort of music, or a band from somewhere that plays English music. There is no consensus on this matter, and in practice both interpretations are possible. In fact, many speakers want it to be ambiguous so that clearer phrasing is used instead.
Using a single word between the pi does prevent the ambiguity, as the flat structure would contain an invalid single-word pi phrase. However, if you feel the need to stack this many modifiers, you might be better off rephrasing the phrase into a sentence:
kiwen pi(soweli pi kute suli)kiwen pi soweli pi kute suli
big-eared animal rock
kiwen ni li sama soweli pi(kute suli)kiwen ni li sama soweli pi kute suli.
This rock is like a big-eared animal.
soweli pi(kute suli) li lawa e kiwen nisoweli pi kute suli li lawa e kiwen ni.
A big-eared animal rules over this rock.
Misconceptions
pi is not "of"
Some dictionaries, most notably the one featured in pu, define the word pi as meaning "of". This is misleading, as most senses of "of" don't translate into pi. This was acknoledged in the section "Notes on lipu pu" of the Toki Pona Dictionary.[1]
tokipiponatoki
piponathe language of good
It may be more helpful to think of every modifier as having an implied "of" before it:
kala utala sulikala utala suli
fish of fighting of bigness
Possession
pi is not a possessive particle. It does not necessarily indicate ownership or translate the English suffix -'s, also known as the Saxon genitive. Any adjective can be interpreted as indicating possession regardless of the presence or absence of pi. pi serves the same purpose in a possessive context as it does in any other: to separate a group of modifiers from those preceding them.
tomo onatomo ona
their house
In this case, the word ona could name the owner of the house, and there is no pi.
tomo pi(jan [ale luka uta])tomo pi jan Alu
jan Alu's house
Here, jan Alu owns the house; pi is used to separate the phrase jan Alu from the word tomo, preventing confusion. This is only because jan Alu is a multi-word modifier, and ona is a single-word modifier.
tomo ona aletomo ona ale
all their houses; all houses belonging to them
tomo pi(ona ale)tomo pi ona ale
all-of-them house; house belonging to all of them
Possession is one of many possible interpretations of pi: what comes after pi simply modifies, describes, qualifies, or alters what comes before it.
Controversy
pi is controversial. To many speakers, it feels too engineered for Toki Pona's natural design, it creates more complexity and misconceptions than it is worth, and it encourages learners to find "the phrase" for any given word.[citation needed] Avoiding pi is a common nasin called pin't.
Notes
- ↑ Some speakers[citation needed] analyze all modifiers as applying to the first word instead, but the distinction often doesn't matter.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lang, Sonja. (18 July 2021). Toki Pona Dictionary. Illustrated by Vacon Sartirani. Tawhid. ISBN 978-0978292362. p. 8.
- ↑ jan Lepo [jan-Lope]. "Toki Pona - Lessons and Dictionary". GitHub. Retrieved 8 November 2023.
External links
Resources
- Toki Pona: The Language of Good: Lesson 11
- jan Kekan San: Modifiers and pi
- jan Lentan: Lesson 9
- soweli Tesa: Lesson 6
- nasin toki pona: the particle pi
- Jonathan Gabel: Descriptions and Possesives