Guide to Toki Pona
Toki Pona can be learned within a single day
- Someone, probably
What even is Toki Pona
Toki Pona was originally created as a minimalist constructed language in 2001 by linguist Sonja Lang who is known in the community of
Toki Pona speakers as “mama toki”, “jan Sonja” or “jan Sonja”. On 20 January 2022 the ISO (international standards organization) officially
gave Toki Pona its own language code ISO 639-3 : tok. In 2026 the Toki Pona Wikipedia page was launched.
Why learn Toki Pona
To preface this, I am not a crusader for Toki Pona but it is very hard to deny that Toki Pona is extremely simple, fun and challenges you to think in simple terms. In Toki Pona you don’t say “train” you say “linja tawa” which literally means something like “moving line” or “away-line”. Comparisons such as “better” or “worse” do not exist in Toki Pona instead you would say “X is good, Y is bad” and let context work the rest.
Basic phrases
- toki - hello
- sina pona ala pona? - how are you? (literally “you good not good”)
- sina pona anu seme? - how are you? (literally “you good or what”)
- pona - I am well (answer to “how are you”)
- pona ala - I am unwell (answer to “how are you”)
- mi tawa - goodbye (literally “I am/go away”)
Grammar
Toki Pona has one of the simplest alphabets in the world: a, e, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, s, t, u, w. All of them are pronounced like their IPA value. The trickiest part for English speakers is usually [j], which is a “y”-sound as in “yes” not a “j”-sound as in “jungle”.
Sentences begin with a subject, which may be any word or the three personal pronouns “mi”, “sina” and “ona” which mean “I/me”, “you”, “he/she/it/they…” respectively.