lipu-sona/pages/tokipona/9.md

% toki pona page 9 - complex adjectives and contexts
% /dev/urandom
% march 2020

The vocabulary for this page:

| word  | meaning                          | derived from                     |
|-------|----------------------------------|----------------------------------|
| pi    | "of" (groups adjectives)         | Tok Pisin "bilong" (of)          |
| la    | "if/when" (introduces context)   | Esperanto "la" (definite article)|
| luka  | hand, arm                        | Serbo-Croatian "ruka" (arm)      |
| linja | long flexible object, hair       | Finnish "linja" (line)           |
| palisa| long solid object, branch, stick | Serbo-Croatian "palica" (rod)    |
| selo  | outer form, shell, skin, boundary| Esperanto "ŝelo" (skin)          |
| sijelo| body, physical state, torso      | Serbo-Croatian "tijelo" (body)   |
| len   | cloth, clothes, layer of privacy | Acadian French "linge" (clothing)|
| lete  | cold, raw                        | Acadian French "frette" (cold)   |
| musi  | entertaining, artistic, fun, game| Esperanto "amuzi" (have fun)     |

Time to introduce two another particles in this language: "pi" and "la".

## pi

The word "pi" works by grouping several adjectives together. Normally, all
adjectives in a phrase apply to the first word.

For example:

> jan wawa -- strong person

> jan wawa ala -- no strong people

If you need to say "weak people", you need to negate "wawa", but not "jan".
That's where "pi" comes in handy:

> jan pi wawa ala -- weak person/people ("of no strength")

It is also useful for phrases that use unofficial words.

> ma tomo Wasintan li ma tomo lawa pi ma Mewika. -- (the city of) Washington is
> the capital ("main city") of the United States.

## la

The word "la" allows to combine two sentences to form conditions and introduce
context.

> [sentence A] la [sentence B].

This translates to something like:

> If [sentence A], then [sentence B].

## Dialectal differences

> %info%
> This part of the document describes how certain toki pona courses differ in
> explaining certain ideas.

The official book, the "o kama sona e toki pona!" course and my personal style
differ on how to place punctuation in sentences that use "la".

The official book sometimes uses a comma before "la" and sometimes uses no
punctuation.

The online course doesn't use any punctuation.

I personally prefer using the comma after "la". 

## Exercises

Now, try to figure out the meaning of these sentences.

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And try to translate the following sentences into toki pona.

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<a name="answers" href="#answers" onclick="revealSpoilers();">Reveal answers</a>

> %spoiler%
> * 
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> %spoiler%
> * 
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