Foreword

This analysis is mired in the complexities of observing a partially-archived work-in-progress, and second hand commentary on that work. Case in point, here is some commentary from October 5th 2009 on some words missing from the newly made wiki that were not meant to be missing. Actually, one word was intentionally missing, to the disappointment of the community. I can’t say with complete confidence that all of the analysis that follows is certainly true, but I have done my best to pick apart fact and speculation, and cite with links where I can.

Important history note: The forum was opened and the Yahoo group were closed on the same day: October 1st, 2009. This was also the day she replaced the old version of tokipona.org with a wiki version, to make parts of her upcoming book accessible, although a small number of wiki pages show edit dates prior to this. Any links to the forum prior to this date are actually links to the Yahoo group archived on the forum. For reference, this is the first forum post, but the search feature will reveal the archived Yahoo group as well.

When was pu added to Toki Pona?

pu was added to the wiki word list on October 1st, 2009 at the same time as the forum replaced the Yahoo group and the wiki was published in a work in progress state. This is also the point where Sonja made several changes to toki pona. Those changes are:

• esun and pan were added officially.
  • Here is esun’s word page!
  • They were in one of Sonja’s prior online dictionaries as early as December 2007
  • They are not in the old dictionary or the older dictionary.
  • Sonja had said there would be 120 words as opposed to the then-current 118, and these additional two would presumably have come with the book originally expected to release in 2008.
  • There would later be 123 words, starting October 1st 2009.
• pu, alasa, kipisi, namako were created and added officially.
  • They do not appear on the forum prior to October 5th, 2009. (I checked all the earlier posts.)
  • pu first shows up on the 11th. (I checked all the earlier posts.)
  • Given Sonja was actively updating the wiki, pu may not have been on the Oct 1st 2009 list. The fact that this oct 1st dictionary has an entry for utala despite this post noting it is missing on the 5th means either the archive is contradictory or the poster is referring to the word pages being empty. I suspect it is the word pages, not the archive.
  • These four words were certainly created earlier than this date, presumably to be included in Sonja’s book if it had released in 2008 or 2009. However, we cannot prove this; their creation date is best said to be October 1st 2009.
  • Note: The fact that pan and esun were planned to make a 120 word language in December 2007 could imply that alasa, kipisi, and namako were created during 2008. That’s not a guarantee; they could have been made earlier but not revealed.
• noka was deprecated, replaced with anpa.
  • The new wiki redirects noka to anpa.
  • This removal is the source of many discrepencies in numbers (of words). At least we have an explanation, unlike Hbomberguy.
• monsuta, apeja, and pake were created, but were not added to the main dictionary.
  • This post notes that monsuta was not linked on the main dictionary but did have a dedicated word page.
  • apeja and pake reportedly had talk pages, but only the apeja talk page is archived.
  • Note: That post errantly claims that pu only had a talk page, but its word page is archived here. That post also claims mani is new, which uh, no, here it is in 2002.
• (for completeness) kijetesantakalu was created several months prior on April 1st 2009, but was not included in the dictionary either in entry or talk page form, to the disappointment of some forumgoers

What did pu mean?

This investigation started with the question of when pu was created- and I believe we have a satisfying answer now. But what did it mean? Today, pu means “interact with Toki Pona: The Language of Good” (top definition from ku). Prior to ku, it was “interacting with the official Toki Pona book” (definition from pu). What would pu mean in a world where Toki Pona: The Language of Good wasn’t yet published?

It turns out, there was no official answer! The word page is blank, and everyone else is clueless. But we have a hint of an official answer, putting the 2009 definition of pu in a similar state to apeja: The talk page of a totally different article did give a definition. So let’s explore!

(but before we continue, fun fact: the article on the second link “everyone” lists 6 words, but the title says 5. is the author not counting pu yet? did they forget noka was removed and count only the difference from 118 to 123? this misunderstanding is fairly common)

Example meanings:

• Definitionless: Seems right.
• Reserved word: Yes, this is as opposed to “definitionless”.
• “Having the official toki pona book”: This reportedly appeared on the talk page of “What is Toki Pona?”, so it’s the second most credible after the dictionary entry. This definition also appeared here later.
• “Uncarved block/wood”: based on its theorized etymology
• “comma, semicolon”: This also appears here. I have no idea where this came from otherwise, unless it’s related to the next entry…
• Some sort of ambiguity-reducing particle. This one is hilarious, because it originates at this edit on the French language Wikipedia article for Toki Pona. There is no earlier source, nor later source other than people referencing this. > Le mot pu est une sorte de virgule utilisée pour éviter certains contresens. Son usage est cependant rejeté par la norme officielle.

Summary

pu was added to Toki Pona on October 1st, 2009. On that day, Sonja reworked Toki Pona’s site into a wiki and published some of what would become pu’s content. This included adding pu, among other words, to the official dictionary page. pu had no definition on its own word page, but the talk page for “What is Toki Pona?” reportedly gave it the definition “to have the official Toki Pona book.” There was also a lot of speculation and experimentation, but its definition would not technically be official until the release of pu.

I hope you enjoyed reading this essay as much as I enjoyed writing it