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% toki pona page 0 - spelling and pronunciation % /dev/urandom % march 2020
The language toki pona only uses 14 letters of the Latin alphabet, and all of these letters have consistent pronunciations.
These are: a,e,i,j,k,l,m,n,o,p,s,t,u,w.
You might have noticed that all these letters are lowercase. This is because all toki pona words are spelled in lowercase, even at the start of sentences.
The consonants use the same sounds as those in English, with the exception of "j", which instead sounds like the English "y".
The vowels are a bit more complicated (or more simple, depending on your view). Unlike English, every vowel uses the same sound in all words. If you know how to pronounce the vowel sounds in Spanish, Japanese or Esperanto, then you can pronounce them the same way in toki pona.
For examples of English words with corresponding pronunciations:
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a sounds like the "u" in the word "up" or (in some variants of English) the "a" in "bath".
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e sounds like the "e" in the word "bet".
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i sounds like the "i" in the word "win".
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o sounds like the "o" in the word "long".
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u sounds like the "oo" in "oops" or "moon".
Since there are so few sounds, different speakers may pronounce it with some differences. For example, some might substitute the sounds "p,t,k" with "b,d,g".
All toki pona words are pronounced with stress on their first syllable.
Exercises
Here are some toki pona words that are derived from, or sound similar to, other English words:
| toki pona | sounds similar to |
|---|---|
| jaki | yucky |
| jelo | yellow |
| ken | can |
| mani | money |
| mi | me |
| mun | moon |
| tu | two |
| wan | one |