lipu-sona/pages/tokipona/index.md

% lipu sona pona (toki pona course)
% /dev/urandom
% 2020-03-17

| Translations / ante toki             | Author / jan pali | Last update / tenpo pi ante sin |
|--------------------------------------|-------------------|---------------------------------|
| [Deutsch / toki Tosi](de_index.html) | [Ret "jan Ke Tami" Samys](https://janketami.wordpress.com) | 2021-08-09 |
| [Polski / toki Posuka](pl_index.html) | p0-12,x1,x2: Maksymilian Król (jan Otele), p13: Alicja / jan Alise (filiżanka#4087) | 2021-10-13 |
| [Русский / toki Losi](ru_index.html) | jan Lentan        | 2021-08-04 |

This is a series of pages comprising an attempt at an unofficial educational
course about *toki pona*, a constructed language originally designed in 2001 and
then gradually revised over the years by Sonja Lang.

The language is designed around the ideas of minimalist design and simplifying
one's thoughts by breaking down complicated ideas into their basic components.
It only uses 120 "official words" (with a few additional ones being
sometimes used by the community), has an incredibly simple grammar and uses few
sounds that are hard to confuse.

As a result, the language is considered to be incredibly easy to learn, with
some people claiming to be able to read it after only days and achieving fluency
within a week or two.

However, with that simplicity also come limitations. Many words have multiple
meanings, and some phrases or sentences are ambiguous without context.
Expressing many concepts and ideas in toki pona will require one to come up with
their own phrases or rephrase them completely (which, as mentioned before, is
part of the language's idea).

Speaking of context, toki pona is a very context-sensitive language. Different
people may describe the same basic ideas or things in completely different ways.
This is also part of the language's idea. Even some of the rules of the language
are also interpreted differently by different people, whether depending on what
their native language is or their opinions on what's the best way to communicate
something.

In addition, toki pona is also designed to be easy to use regardless of one's
native language. The sounds and syllable structure used in toki pona are
distinct from one another and common across many languages, whereas the
vocabulary features words borrowed from many languages across the world.

# About this course

There are several good sources for learning toki pona available already. The
most important (and best, in my opinion), is the [**official toki pona
book**](https://tokipona.org/) (also known as "pu") published in 2014 by Sonja
Lang herself. It is not free, but it's a well-written book with lots of
additional texts to read, and it explains the language very well.

A fun video course is jan Misali's
["12 days of sona pi toki pona"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L-dvvng4Zc)
series on YouTube. It covers the entire language in 12 short videos, each
featuring 10 words from the official dictionary (psst: the structure of my pages
is inspired by it.)

Previously, the online course "o kama sona e toki pona!" ("learn toki pona!") by
Bryant Knight (aka "jan Pije") served as another important learning resource.
Before being retired by its creator, it was one of the earliest toki pona pages
available online. As a result, it had some differences in how it used certain
words. The earlier versions of the course have also attracted some controversy
over including several rather bigoted statements and texts in their content.

My goal here is to try and present a version that tries to account for the
different ways people speak and write toki pona and the way it is being used
now. Some pages will include "Dialectal differences" sections, in which these
differences will be covered. Some of the larger differences will be described
right away. I will provide my personal opinions on some of these differences, so
while this course does try to be exhaustive, it is not impartial.

The page numbered zero will provide basic info on the language's spelling and
pronunciation, and each page past that will introduce 10 words from the
language's 120 word dictionary.

## Table of Contents

### Course pages

* [page 0 - spelling and pronunciation](0.html) [(普通话)](zh_0.html)

* [page 1 - basic sentences](1.html)

* [page 2 - adjectives](2.html)

* [page 3 - verbs and objects](3.html)

* [page 4 - oh no! more vocabulary](4.html)

* [page 5 - this and that](5.html)

* [page 6 - prepositions and locations](6.html)

* [page 7 - interjections, questions, commands and names](7.html)

* * [page 7a - more about making unofficial words](7a.html)

* [page 8 - colorful language](8.html)

* [page 9 - complex adjectives and contexts](9.html)

* [page 10 - pre-verbs and time](10.html)

* [page 11 - numbers](11.html)

* [page 12 - the final countdown](12.html)

* [page 13 - special dictionary edition](13.html) **NEW**

### Extra pages

* [extra page 1 - old and new words](x1.html)
* * [description of some of these words in toki pona](nimi_pi_pu_ala.html)

* [extra page 2 - other writing systems](x2.html)
* * [sitelen pona](sitelen_pona.html)

* [dictionary](dictionary.html)

* [my personal style](personal_style.html)

* [credits and acknowledgements](credits.html)

### Original content

* [phonetic alphabet (EN/RU)](phonetic_alphabet.html)

* [keyboard layout](keyboard.html)

* [IBus tables for sitelen pona](sitelen_pona_ibus.html) _by jan Komi_

* [musi pi jan lawa moli (rules of chess)](chess.html)

* * [musi Soki (rules of shogi) (wip)](shogi.html)

* [lipu nasin pi musi Lisi Masan (Riichi Mahjong) (WIP)](riichi_mahjong.html)

* ["insa pi supa lape" -- an original sitelen pona font](supalape.html)

* [ante toki tawa musi pi sitelen tawa (video game translations)](game_patches.html)

* * ["jan lawa pi linja ilo" ("LAN Master")](jan_lawa_pi_linja_ilo.html)

* * [ante toki pi jan Pije (jan Pije's translations)](game_patches_jp.html)

* [list of Russian/Ukrainian/Belarusian city names](city_names.html)

* ["nasin Juni pi ilo kon"](nasin_juni.html), a short page about the "Unix way"

* ["o lawa e sona sina!"](o_lawa_e_sona_sina.html), a small article about the
  centralization of the internet

* [nasin tenpo](nasin_tenpo.html), a time measurement system that only uses a
  few numbers

## Software

Here are links to some software that I personally found useful:

* ["ding" dictionary tool](http://www-user.tu-chemnitz.de/~fri/ding/) is a
simple-looking and easy to use dictionary tool that, by default, comes bundled
with German-to-English dictionaries, but toki pona-to-English files for it are
also available [on this
page](https://jan-lope.github.io/Toki_Pona_lessons_English/).

* [toki pona keyboard](https://github.com/timeopochin/tokiponakeyboard) for
  Android phones. Supports both Latin (with some sitelen pona font features) and
  sitelen emoji. (WIP)

* [ilo pi sitelen pona](https://ilo-pi-sitelen-pona.glitch.me/): a web-based
  tool that converts Latin-based toki pona into UCSUR-compatible sitelen pona.

## Other courses online

* [Jonathan Gabel's lessons](https://jonathangabel.com/toki-pona) teach both
  toki pona as a language and "sitelen sitelen", a rather ornamental-looking (if
  uncommon in general usage) writing system for toki pona.

## Useful resources

Apart from the above-mentioned book and courses, here are some good resources
and links for people who want to learn or use toki pona:

* [tokipona.net](http://tokipona.net) (warning: if your "HTTPS Everywhere" addon
  is set to "Encrypt All Sites Eligible", disable it for tokipona.net, or else
  it will redirect you to an unrelated website)

* ["lipu lili pona", a description of toki pona's rules and vocabulary on 2 
 pages](https://neocities.org/site/lipu-lili-pona)

* [Another description of toki pona's rules and vocab on 2
  pages](https://morr.cc/toki-pona-cheat-sheet/)

* [A toki pona dictionary with sitelen pona
 characters](https://theotherwebsite.com/tokipona/) by "The Other Website"

* [toki pona flashcards for Anki](https://ankiweb.net/shared/decks/toki%20pona)

* * [flashcards based on this
website](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/204928497), by u/parentis\_shotgun

* [jan Sotan's description of his personal style, including the informal "tok'
  apona" dialect](https://github.com/ae-dschorsaanjo/lipu-lili-pi-toki-pona)

## Other people's original works

* ["musi lili"](https://musilili.net/), a page by jan Same

* [lipu kule, a blog with posts in toki pona by various
  people](https://lipukule.org/)

* ["lipu tenpo", a toki pona magazine](https://liputenpo.org/)

* [lipu Wikipesija, a recent project to make a toki pona
 Wikipedia](https://wikipesija.org) **NEW**

* [Russian TV: "Art Revolution" on conlangs](art_revolution.html)

### Discussion groups and chats

* [/r/tokipona subreddit](https://reddit.com/r/tokipona)

* ["ma pona pi toki pona" Discord server](https://discord.gg/Byqn5z9)

* [toki pona Telegram group](https://telegram.me/joinchat/BLVsYz92zHUp2h2TYp9kTA)
* * [IRC channel #tokipona on Freenode, bridged with the Telegram group](ircs://freenode.org:6697/#tokipona)

* ["kulupu pi toki pona" Telegram group](https://t.me/kulupupitokipona) (this
  one is usually more about talking _in_ toki pona)

---

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