Names and Writing
Toki Pona 1
Chapter 9 · Names and Writing
🏷️ Names and Writing — pi, jan Mali, sitelen pona
Two loose ends remain. First, the one particle you have not met, pi, which regroups describing words. Second, how to handle names of people, places and languages, which Toki Pona deliberately leaves out of its 120 words. The chapter ends with a short look at the language's own writing system. By the end you will form phrases such as "a builder of new houses", say where you come from, name your language, and recognise the hieroglyphic script.
🔗 The Particle pi
In Chapter 3 you learned that each describing word narrows the whole phrase to its left. So tomo telo suli is "a big bathroom": tomo telo is the bathroom, and suli describes that. Sometimes you want a describing word to apply to a group. pi opens that group:
| Toki Pona | Structure | English |
|---|---|---|
| jan pona mute | [[jan pona] mute] | many good people |
| jan pali pi tomo sin | jan pali + pi [tomo sin] | a builder of new houses |
| kulupu pi jan pona | kulupu + pi [jan pona] | a community of friends |
| ilo pi pali tomo | ilo + pi [pali tomo] | a tool for house-building |
Read pi as "of the following group", with the group being two or more words.
👤 Names
A name of a person, place or language is a proper adjective. It follows a common noun and always begins with a capital letter. Names are not part of the official vocabulary, so a speaker changes a name to fit Toki Pona's sounds: only the 14 letters, syllables of the shape (C)V(n), and no letters outside the set.
| The real name | In Toki Pona | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Mary | jan Mali | a person |
| Peter | jan Pita | a person |
| Canada | ma Kanata | a country (ma = land) |
| Germany | ma Tosi | a country |
| Mexico | ma Mesiko | a country |
| English | toki Inli | a language (toki = language) |
| Esperanto | toki Epelanto | a language |
To make a name, listen to the sounds, then write them with Toki Pona letters and syllables. Replace sounds you do not have by the nearest ones: f by p, b by p, d by t, g by k, r by l, h is dropped or becomes k, v by w, z by s. Break up clusters by adding a vowel. So "Philip" becomes Pilipo. The choice is yours: different speakers may spell the same name slightly differently, and that is fine.
✍️ The Script — sitelen pona
Toki Pona is normally written in Latin letters, as in this course. It also has its own hieroglyphic script, sitelen pona ("good writing"), designed by Sonja Lang, in which each of the 120 words has its own small picture-like sign. A name is written in a frame, called a cartouche, with letters inside. The script is displayed with a special font and can be written by hand, which makes it popular in art. A second, very elaborate, script, sitelen sitelen, packs a whole sentence into one decorated shape. You do not need either for this course. Both come up in Constructed Languages 8 as examples of a designed writing system.
💬 Five Short Dialogs
① Names — nimi
② Where From — ma
③ Which Languages — toki
④ A Group — pi
⑤ Writing — sitelen
📖 Vocabulary — nimi
The last particle of the language, plus the words that turn up most with names. Stress is on the first syllable.
| # | Toki Pona | Say it | Meaning | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | pi | pi | (regroups the words that follow) | particle |
| 2 | nimi | NI-mi | word, name | noun |
| 3 | ma | ma | land, country, place | noun |
| 4 | toki | TO-ki | language, talk | noun |
| 5 | sitelen | SI-te-len | write, draw; picture, writing | verb / noun |
| 6 | lipu | LI-pu | paper, book, page | noun |
Only pi is new here; the rest are from earlier chapters and are the words you will use most when talking about names and writing.
📜 Reading — lukin
True or false? (a) The speaker's name is Peter. (b) The speaker is from Canada. (c) The speaker builds old houses. (d) The speaker speaks two languages.
Show answers
(a) False: nimi mi li Mali. (b) True: ma Kanata. (c) False: tomo sin, new houses. (d) True: toki Inli and toki pona.
✍️ Try It Yourself — pali
Say each answer out loud first, then click to check.
1. Turn "Anna", "Tom" and "Sam" into Toki Pona names, and say "My name is …" for one of them.
Show answer
One possible set: Ana, Tomo (note that tomo is also a word, but a capital marks it as a name), Sami. nimi mi li Ana. Other spellings are fine if they follow the sound rules.
2. Say "I speak German" and "My friend is from Mexico".
Show answer
mi toki e toki Tosi. · jan pona mi li kama tan ma Mesiko.
3. Use pi: "a tool for fishing" (fish + hunt), "a house of strong people".
Show answer
ilo pi alasa kala · tomo pi jan wawa
4. Which of these are correct, and why: jan pi pona, tomo pi telo suli, jan pona mi?
Show answer
jan pi pona is wrong (a single word after pi; write jan pona). tomo pi telo suli is correct ("a house of big water"). jan pona mi is correct ("my friend").
5. Fix the mistake: mali jan, ma kanata, toki inli.
Show answer
jan Mali · ma Kanata · toki Inli (common noun first, name second, name with a capital).
6. Introduce yourself fully: your name, your country, and your languages.
Show answer
For example: toki! nimi mi li Mali. mi kama tan ma Kanata. mi toki e toki Inli e toki pona. Use your own name and country.