sona pona:Word articles

This is a wiki essay with advice from one or more contributors.

Word articles detail the usage and background of a Toki Pona word. sona pona plans to document almost all words with some usage or notability, including but not limited to every word in Linku.

Contents

Beginning

The opening paragraph should be a short line describing the most general and and widely accepted descriptions of the word, as well as how it is used by the community.

• Part of speech: content word, etc.
• Usage category: Use {{a category}} to insert this automatically; it removes the need to manually update all word articles after every survey.
• Era: pre-pu, post-pu, or post-ku. For the nimi pu, this may be omitted, as they are all pre-pu by definition.
• Book presence: nimi ku suli, nimi ku lili, or nimi sin. For the nimi pu, this may be omitted.
• Is it a joke word?

Etymology

Etymologies should mainly include primary sources (such as a message or post defining the word, see {{cite etym}}), as well as secondary sources where possible (such as Toki Pona Dictionary itself, page 24).

Semantic space

Main article: Semantic space

Unlike dictionaries, sona pona should describe the meanings of words in prose. One source to use is lipamanka's dictionary; cite it with {{cite lipamanka}}. Sections on semantic spaces should be as long and detailed as is needed to fully explain the word to learners.

Example sentences

Example sentences should ideally be short, direct, and unambiguous, using the word in a clear way. They may be quotes from Toki Pona works, or new sentences created specifically for the article, as long as they follow these guidelines. It is also good to relate the sentence to a subject that most people in the world would understand.

pu definitions and ku data

For completeness, the definitions presented in Toki Pona: The Language of Good and the data in Toki Pona Dictionary for comparison and easy access. Use {{cite pu}} and {{cite ku}} to cite the dictionary page, followed by {{pu def}} and {{ku data}} respectively.

Other writing systems

If sitelen pona or sitelen sitelen glyphs exist, describe their composition, etymology, designer, and year of design. For sitelen sitelen glyphs, a good source is Jonathan Gabel's personal website.

Related words

Rarer (but still common) words that are closely related to the article's can each have a subsection with an abridged version of the above. In these subsections, fill in the first parameter of {{nimi}} with the name of the word.

If the main word of the article is recommended or common, it has been decided not to give uncommon and lower words undue weight by covering them in this section. Such words may still be given separate articles if they are at all useful to cover on the wiki.

Template

This form will start creating a word article, prefilling the editor with Template:Word article/Preload.

Follow the instructions marked as <!--comments-->, removing them when they have been addressed.

After creation

Redirecting

If there are related words, remember to create redirects from the word names to their sections. On the redirect at the canonical name of the word (or closest to it, in the case of technical restrictions), add {{nimi}} below the redirect, and fill it in without the first parameter, to categorize the related word correctly.

Listing

Remember to add a link to the article or redirect in List of words, and on any other relevant word-listing articles such as Joke words.

Requests

For a list of requested word articles, or to make a new request, see Project:Requests § Word article requests.