soweli

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soweli is a a core content word relating to hairy or furry animals.

soweli
Pronunciation	/ˈso.we.li/
Usage	2023: Core (100% → )2022: Core (100%)
Book and era	nimi pu
Part of speech	Content word
Codepoint	󱥢 U+F1962

Etymology

The word soweli is derived from Georgian ცხოველი (cxoveli), meaning "beastly animal".

Semantic space

The semantic space of soweli, similar to other core animal words, depends widely on the speaker. Due to Toki Pona's philosophy of valuing direct, immediate, and personal experience, a strict cut-off at terrestrial animals that are specifically part of Mammalia as a taxonomic group would be out of line with Toki Pona's view on the world. However, its semantic space does have a very big overlap with mammals (and their relatives). The the defining features of soweli is a matter of debate.

Proposals have ranged from motion and speed on land, particularly of how the legs are used to move about, to fur and fuzziness, and to certain features of roundness (particularly around the head). Another way of getting closer to a description of soweli is to leave it as a catch-all category that does not fit into the other animal words – all of which face similar difficulty of being defined clearly and uncontroversially.

This leads to some edge cases, such as:

• 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.

soweli is sometimes extended to refer to animals in general, including akesi, kala, pipi, and waso. This is a nonstandard usage and is rejected by many fluent speakers.

pu

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

NOUN  animal, beast, land mammal

ku

For Toki Pona Dictionary, respondents in ma pona pi toki pona translated these English words as soweli:

animal⁵81–100% of respondents, deer⁵81–100% of respondents, creature⁴61–80% of respondents, dog⁴61–80% of respondents, cat⁴61–80% of respondents, llama³41–60% of respondents, goat³41–60% of respondents, Musteloidea³41–60% of respondents, beast³41–60% of respondents, lion³41–60% of respondents, pig²21–40% of respondents, capybara²21–40% of respondents, wolf²21–40% of respondents, horse²21–40% of respondents, mouse (2020)²21–40% of respondents, tiger²21–40% of respondents, large domesticated animal²21–40% of respondents, Hominidae²21–40% of respondents, procyonid²21–40% of respondents, monkey²21–40% of respondents, rabbit²21–40% of respondents

sitelen pona

The sitelen pona glyph for soweli (󱥢) represents a quadrupedal mammal.

sitelen sitelen

The sitelen sitelen glyph for soweli possibly represents the head of a dog.

Further reading

• "soweli" on lipu Linku
• "soweli" on lipu Wikipesija
• "soweli" on English Wiktionary