jan Kekan San

jan Kekan San

Your first conversation!

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Goals and Topics

The goal of this lesson is to take you from zero to your first conversation in Toki Pona. I'm not going to cover everything- I can't- but I'll cover enough to get you started!

We are going to briefly discuss:

This leaves a lot on the cutting room floor, including commands and instructions, context, prepositions, preverbs, semantic spaces, names, numbers, the list of words and their meanings, and certainly more.

But don't worry: As important as they are, you won't need prepositions to get started. In most language learning, we'd start with asking where the bathroom is. But conveniently, we can skip this, because most Toki Pona is spoken on the internet- the question would be totally useless!

Let's get started.

How Words Work

In Toki Pona, words are broad. Like, really broad. Imagine the English word "bird" for example: it doesn't mean "chicken", "owl", "eagle" or "parrot", but it can refer to any of these and more.

Toki Pona words all work like this: they "mean" some broad concept, but can refer to lots of specific things that fit into that concept. In fact, they're broader than the most similar words in English too. waso, Toki Pona's closest word to "bird", covers all flying creatures, and more for some speakers.

Let's look at the name of the language to demonstrate how this works in Toki Pona:

toki+pona

toki refers to speech, conversation, thought, and language. It's not any one of these- it's all of them, as one big idea-blob: communication, in all its forms.

pona refers to good things like friendliness, positivity, being helpful, and fixing things. Again, not any one of these, but all of them at once: positive things and traits of all kinds.

But together, "toki pona" can mean "friendly conversation", "positive thought", and of course "good language".

As I said, I'm not going to define each word I use- but I will be translating, and I'll spend more time on important grammar words. Keep this "broad words" idea in mind and you'll be set!

But before we get to sentences and translations, we need to talk about these symbols!

How to Write

This here is the "logo" of sorts for Toki Pona. The circle with three lines over it is the word "toki", and the smile-like curve on the inside is the word "pona". In normal writings, you'll usually see words side by side rather than one inside the other, but it means the same either way.

This way of writing is called "sitelen pona",

sitelen pona

literally "good writing", and it is toki pona's most adorable writing system.

sitelen pona is logographic, meaning words are represented with symbols. For this lesson, we'll assume that every symbol means exactly one word, and every word has exactly one symbol. There are exceptions, but this is close enough to true!

Lastly, each symbol is representative of the idea of the word. Even grammar words look a bit like punctuation to my English-reading eyes.

Here are a few examples we'll be using throughout the lesson. See if you can guess what they mean before we get to them!

suwi, lape, kute, kala, wawa

Alright, now we can actually start on the language.

mi and sina and ona

mi, sina, and ona are toki pona's pronouns, and you'll be using them a lot!

For their symbols, imagine looking at a hand from the top down.

You'll use mi and sina a lot, so they have some special grammar that saves you time.

Let's look at some sentences. These first few will have just a subject and a verb:

mi pona

"I am well" or "We are good". mi is a first person pronoun: I, we, me.

sina suwi

"You are cute", or "Y'all are adorable". sina is a second person pronoun: you, y'all.

ona li sona

"They understand", or "They know". ona is a third person pronoun: they, it, he, she.

In the first two sentences, mi and sina are the subject and are immediately followed by a verb- the action of the sentence. This is always the case: if mi and sina are the exact subject, the verb always comes next.

But in the third, ona is followed by the word "li". For ona, and all other subjects besides mi and sina, li goes afterward and marks the start of the verb.

mi and sina are special because doing it this way is a little more natural, and a little quicker to say.

Otherwise, these three are all the same kind of sentence: a subject, then a verb. Let's look at a few more:

mi lape

"I rested", "I slept", "I will relax"

sina kute

"You listen", "y'all heard"

ona li suli

"It was tall", "She will be important"

This is a good moment to remind you of the whole "nouns don't mark number, verbs don't mark tense" thing.

In the previous set of translations, we noted that "mi pona" can mean "I am well", or "we are good". "mi" could have been just the speaker, or a group including the speaker.

In these translations, we noted that "sina kute" can mean "You listen", or "y'all heard". "kute", listening, could have happened at any time- not just the present.

In fact, we can go another step further- Toki Pona's verb doesn't tell apart "doing" from "being." This means the verb can be an action, or a description, and grammatically these two are identical.

So you might be wondering, how are you supposed to tell apart all these different cases if the sentence doesn't tell you?

The answer is context. If you're speaking directly to a friend and nobody else, and they say "mi", they probably mean just themselves.

If you're in a big group walking down the street but need to split up, you might hear somebody say "sina" and figure they mean the half of the group that they aren't in.

And if context isn't enough, you can always add more information by adding more words to the sentence.

We'll cover that shortly, but let's have a bonus pronoun before we continue:

We also have "ni", a demonstrative pronoun, which means this, that, these, or those. Here are a few sentences:

ni li nasa

"That was strange", "Those are unusual"

ni li wawa

"This is amazing", "That is forceful", "These are powerful"

li is here to mark the verb. You'll see "li" a lot. Fun fact: When speaking, it's easier to tell part "mi pona" and "ni li pona" because li is in one and not the other! Believe me, that difference is important.

Otherwise, "ni" works about how you'd expect! It can refer to objects near and far from you, ideas you're about to say or just said, and tons more.

So now, we have a handle on the pronouns. We can talk about ourselves with mi, people we're speaking to with sina, other people and things with ona, and anything we can point at with ni.

Modifiers

Next, we're gonna look at modifiers. You might know them better as adjectives- same thing, but for every part of speech.

Actually, we already saw one of these: in the name of the language, "pona" is a modifier!

You'll note the translations I gave earlier were all types of communication, but specifically "good" communicatoin: positive thought, friendly conversation, good language.

This tells us something important about modifiers: Modifiers can't change what the thing is, only make it more specific. Wiiiith one exception in the word "ala", which we'll get to soon.

But otherwise, this means you could pretend the modifiers are not in the phrase, and still be able to understand the sentence. And this is a good way to practice!

But modifiers can provide very helpful information in understanding what something is, or telling apart multiple similar things. Here's some example sentences:

ni li akesi lili

"this is a small frog", "that was a tiny snake".

We have "akesi", a reptile or amphibian, and it's now "lili"- small. It's still "akesi", like "toki pona" is still "toki!"

jan ni li kama

"this person has arrived", "those people are coming".

We can use our pronouns to modify things, and modifying things with ni to point them out or refer back to them is super helpful!

nasin kiwen jelo li suli

"The yellow brick road is long".

You can have any number of modifiers on a word, and the order doesn't usually matter.

What we see in these sentences is that modifiers can apply to any part of speech- right now, we only have the subject and verb, but we'll have objects shortly.

In fact, let's practice that any-part-of-speech idea by rewriting two of these sentences:

akesi ni li lili

"this frog is small", "that snake was tiny."

We're giving the same information as in "ni li akesi lili", but now "ni" is a modifier, and "lili" is the verb!

nasin ni li kiwen jelo li suli

"This road is made of yellow brick, and long."

Oh yeah: we can have more than one li! And you might have noticed that the verb of the sentence can convey descriptive information.

Alright, that's enough on modifiers. Now, we need to get to questions- and once you have questions down, you'll have everything you need to have a conversation! Except, you know, all the words- buuuuut we don't have all day!

Your first question

So, In Toki Pona, questions are expressed with the grammar, and they have three forms. Let's look at each:

ona li lukin ala lukin?

"Is he looking?", or "Are they staring?".

This type of question takes the first word of the verb, here "lukin", doubles it, and puts "ala" between the two. You could translate this question more literally as "Is he looking or not looking?"

You'll recognize the word "ala" from the modifiers section before- it's that "one exception" I mentioned, where as a modifier it changes the word it modifies. We're almost to the explanation, but for now it's just helping us mark questions. Here's another sentence:

ni li lipu ala lipu?

"Is this a piece of paper?" or "Is that a leaf?".

This, and the question before, are yes or no questions, but Toki Pona has no word for "yes" or "no". Instead, you repeat the verb for yes, so to that first question we could say "lukin.", meaning "Looking". Or, you can say "ala" or "lukin ala", "not looking." And for the second question, we would say "lipu" for yes, or "ala." or "lipu ala" for no.

There's that explanation for ala! When answering a question, you add it to negative answers to say "no". In general, ala can be used as a modifier to mean "not". "lipu ala" would mean "not a card", or "not a book". You can use ala as a modifier in normal sentences too, but we'll focus on asking and answering questions for now.

Here's the next type of question, and it's even easier to follow:

sina musi anu seme?

"Are you having fun?" "Are you funny?"

mi ante anu seme?

"Am I different?" "Am I changed?"

This is also a yes-no question, and you answer the same way: to the first question, you can say "musi" for yes, and "ala" or "musi ala" for no. Same deal for the second question, "ante" for yes, "ante ala" or "ala" for no.

But the grammar is a little more open-ended here. The phrase "anu seme" is tacked onto the end of a statement, in order to indicate that the statement is a question- that phrase can be put onto the end of a sentence no matter how long it is.

Since the grammar is more open-ended, you can answer this type of question with "ni" for yes, or "ni ala" or "ala" for no. Interpreting it literally in English as "this" or "not this" is a little silly sounding, but it is very clear in practice.

ni, ni ala, ala

Let's do one more of these questions before we continue:

ilo mi li kalama ike anu seme?

"Is my phone making too much sound?" "Is my drill noisy?"

The subject is "ilo mi", my tool, and the verb is "kalama ike", bad sound. "anu seme" indicates this is a question as we've discussed, so this is a question asking whether my tool is making bad sound or not- bad being "too much" or being "noisy" in this case.

Alright, one more type of question, and this is the most important one.

So, that word "seme" from before does more than just live in the phrase "anu seme". It also works on its own, and can replace essentially any word that isn't part of the grammar.

seme stands in for any missing information, so you can use it to ask any sort of who, what, where, when, why, which, or how type of question.

With the grammar we have so far, subject-verb sentences and modifiers, we can only really ask "who" or "what". But let's do that!

sina seme?

"what are you doing?"

Here, the subject is "sina" or "you", and "seme" is the verb- the entire verb. So this question is asking, what action are you taking? Or, what describes you? Let's try another:

seme li ni?

"What did this?" "Who did that?"

Here, the subject is seme- so we're asking for the actor, the something or somebody who did something. And that something is just "ni"- this, or that. That is to say, we're trying to figure out who or what did some thing we're looking at, pointing at, or referencing. ni can just be a verb- something we can point at, or something we recently talked about.

But what about answering these questions? Turns out, you already know how- you just fill in the blank. This can mean saying just the word or phrase that fits, or repeating the whole sentence with the word "seme" replaced with your answer.

For example, the question "sina seme" can be answered with "pali", "working", or "mi pali", "I am working." The first fills in the blank, and the second restates the sentence, but both provide the same information.

mi pali

Let's do another one of these before we move on.

ni li moku seme?

"What kind of food is this?"

Here, seme is now a modifier- we're asking for a word to describe "moku", the food. And we could answer- "suwi!" sweet! or "nasa," "strange!" or with a complete sentence describing the origin and ingredients of the food!

What we learn here is that seme fits into the subject or verb, and can be a modifier of another word in any part of speech. seme can also fit into other parts of speech we haven't covered yet- it's amazingly versatile, so try it on lots of things!

We have two more topics, but the next one is brief. Let's go!

Interjections

You know all those questions we answered before? The answers are interjections- words or phrases, but not complete sentences.

That much is obvious- but there are more types of interjections.

As a general statement, any non-grammar word can be an interjection, and what they mean as an interjection has to do with the meaning of the word.

ala

For example, It's pretty clear how "ala" relates to "no."

toki

But every word does this- "toki" is used for "hello," kinda like starting a conversation by saying "conversation!"

pona

"pona", good and pleasant, is used to positively acknowledge something.

sona

"sona", knowledge and knowing, is used to indicate you understand something.

wawa

"wawa", powerful and strong, is used to say something is impressive or amazing.

a

And the word "a" can be used for essentially any emotion or emphasis.

This list is not exhaustive- it's a pile of examples. But interjections come up a lot in speech- they're important!

But the real trick here is that I added this whole section just to tell you that "toki" is how we say "hello!"

Objects

So lastly, we come to objects. This is another major part of speech, and gives us a whole new dimension of sentence types to mess with: subject, then verb, then object. The sentences in this section will be the longest in the presentation, so listen carefully!

My recommendation? Pay close attention to the grammatical particles- they can guide your way.

Let's look at an example sentence:

mi pana e sona

In this sentence, the subject is "mi", I. The verb is "pana", "give". And the object is "sona", knowledge. Together, this is "I give knowledge." More aptly, "I teach."

As with the grammatical object in other languages, the object is a distinct thing in the sentence that the subject is interacting with.

Let's try a silly example to get the idea of objects:

mi kala e sina.

kala means "fish," so this could mean "I turn you into a fish" or "I hit you with a fish." If you're playing fast and loose, it could be "I give you flippers", or "I push you into a pool"- those kinda make you like a fish, even if they're a bit more silly.

The point is, all of these things loosely mean "apply kala, fish, to you".

And that's how the verb acts on the object: you apply something!

Of course, most verbs applied to objects will mean more usual things, just because usual things... are more usual.

Let's look at another, much longer sentence.

soweli li moku e kili kiwen e kasi.

"The animal ate hard fruit and plants", "the mouse is eating seeds and grass." Yes, you can have more than one "e" too!

As a general statement, most sentences with an object are about the subject applying the verb to the object.

Here, soweli (furry animal) applies moku (eating) to kili kiwen (hard fruit or vegetable) and to kasi (plants)

Breaking it down like that, this "apply" idea is very simple. But the trick is that this works with essentially any word.

So let's look at a more usual case.

sina pona e pilin mi

"You helped my feelings," "you improved my mood."

Here, "pilin mi", my feelings, become "pona," good. Because of sina, "you."

And after this, we could say:

pilin mi li pona.

"My feelings are good." "My vibe is positive."

Here's another one:

jan seme li jaki e tomo?!

Who tracked mud in the house?! Who threw garbage in the office??

And after this, we can say "tomo li jaki." The building is dirty.

Now, some sentences aren't going to actually change the object- just involve it in some action the subject does. Your intuition about the action itself will help you here, so I'll demonstrate this more quickly:

pipi li wile e seme?

the bug wants what?

ona suwi li lukin e sina

"the cute one is looking at you!" ... oh yeah! you can modify pronouns!

In case you didn't catch it, seme can go in the object too.

Summary

And that's the presentation!

Here's a list of every topic, just to remind you of how much ground we covered:

o toki tawa mi

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