lipu-sona/pages/.md

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

| Translations /<br>ante toki      | Last update /<br>tenpo pi ante sin | Author / jan pali                                              |
|:--------------------------------:|:----------:|:--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------:|
| [Deutsch / toki Tosi](de)        | 2023-08-13 | [Ret "jan Ke Tami" Samys](https://janketami.wordpress.com), Murdock                    |
| [Esperanto / toki Epelanto](eo)  | 2022-07-06 | acreativename41, jan Pensa, soweli suno (Eriko)                                        |
| [Polski / toki Posuka](pl)       | 2021-10-13 | p0-12,x1,x2: Maksymilian Król (jan Otele),<br>p13: Alicja / jan Alise (filiżanka#4087) |
| [Português / toki Potuke](pt)    | 2023-06-17 | jan Alise - Alice de Paula                                                             |
| [Русский / toki Losi](ru)        | 2022-05-22 | jan Lentan                                                                             |
| [中文 / toki Sonko](zh)            | 2024-02-21 | p0: jan Sose, p1-13: jan Mosi                                                          |

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 "Stylistic 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](en/0)

* [page 1 - basic sentences](en/1)

* [page 2 - adjectives](en/2)

* [page 3 - verbs and objects](en/3)

* [page 4 - oh no! more vocabulary](en/4)

* [page 5 - this and that](en/5)

* [page 6 - prepositions and locations](en/6)

* [page 7 - interjections, questions, commands and names](en/7)
  * [page 7a - more about making unofficial words](en/7a)

* [page 8 - colorful language](en/8)

* [page 9 - complex adjectives and contexts](en/9)

* [page 10 - pre-verbs and time](en/10)

* [page 11 - numbers](en/11)

* [page 12 - the final countdown](en/12)

* [page 13 - special dictionary edition](en/13)

### Extra pages

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

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

* [dictionary](en/dictionary)

* [my personal style](personal_style/)

* [credits and acknowledgements](credits/)

* [original works and translations by jan Lentan](lentan)

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## Learn more

* [sona pona](https://sona.pona.la), a wiki about toki pona and its community.

* [linku.la](https://linku.la/) / [nimi.li](https://nimi.li/),
  an interactive dictionary.

  * Words are grouped by how many speakers embrace a given word (ranging from
    widely accepted words to one-person creations). When learning the language,
    use "core, common".
  * The "uncommon, obscure, sandbox" categories include more injokes and
    personal experiments -- they are nice to be aware of, but you won't need to
    use them in regular conversations.

* [ilo Muni](https://gregdan3.github.io/ilo-muni/), an ngrams viewer
  similar to [Google Ngrams](https://books.google.com/ngrams/).
  Good for learning about how toki pona usage changed over time.

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

* learn [luka pona](https://luka.pona.la/), a sign language designed
  to be used in the toki pona community.

## Immerse yourself

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

* listen to [kalama sin](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjOmpMyMxd8Qs2mAXcLk817tQy_AQj09u), a podcast in toki pona

<!-- 
  Currently links to a suno pi toki pona music playlist.
  In the future, it would be good to have a permanent link
  for high quality music.
-->
* listen to [toki pona music](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeCE5N29ioyUbj_lvYm9IdGJnE2HPacVv)

<!--
  As of 2024, kulupu Lapo is an ongoing project to pool toki pona literature
  into one readily accessible place. The project is in its earliest stages and
  does not warrant being shown here. Hopefully eventually that changes.
-->
* read [toki pona books](https://sona.pona.la/wiki/Literature)

## Join communities

* [ma pona](https://discord.gg/mapona) Discord server,
  the largest active toki pona community

* [kama sona](https://discord.gg/ChC6qtVsSE), a beginner-oriented Discord server

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

* [Facebook group](https://www.facebook.com/groups/sitelen)

* If you would rather join a smaller community,
  [check here](https://sona.pona.la/wiki/Communities)!

You may also check out [recommendations](/recs_2021/) from jan Lentan in 2020-2021!

---

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