Words to Learn
In toki pona, there are two classes of words: particles, and content words.
Content Words
Content words are used to add meaning to a sentence. There are no nouns, verbs, adjectives, or adverbs. Instead, every content word can function similarly to any one of these, depending on its position in a sentence.
A limited amount of content words can be used as prepositions; similarily, a set list of content words can also be used as "preverbs". However, we will address these later in the course. for now, we are focusing on the minimum proper sentence.
For this lesson, we will be learning only 2 content words.
Also, for now, we will be assuming all content words have no modifiers (until Chapter 3, where they are addressed).
| word | definition |
|---|---|
| ijo | literally any thing, object, entity, concept, or action, regardless of animacy |
| toki | communication |
Particles:
Particles are used to structure a sentence. Their presence alters the meaning of a sentence, and are crucial to proper communication. They are very special and separate in purpose from content words. You cannot use a particle as if it was a content word; if you try, others will likely not understand you.
Particles are used to structure a sentence. Content words are divided into groups by particles. Content word groups ____ when
For this lesson, we will be learning only 1 particle.
| word | function |
|---|---|
| li | marks a content word group after it as a predicate |
Lesson
This is the structure of a minimum grammatical sentence in toki pona:
A li B
At the start of the sentence is the subject, A
. Then, li
's presence marks the content word group after it as the predicate. Since B
is after li
, it therefore must be the predicate.
As the subject of a sentence, content words behave like nouns. As the predicate, content words can be likened to verbs, but what a predicate means in any given sentence is ambiguous, and depends heavily on context.
toki li ijo...
Words in toki pona have very broad, general, and fluid definitions. Each word can describe a myriad of different phenomenon. For example, on the most basic level, the definition of toki
boils down to mean "communication". In practice, toki
can be used to describe a variety of different things and situations:
A list of things toki
describes
- a conversation between two people
- the language(s) being spoken
- an act of speaking
- sign language
- an internal monologue
- many sentences
A common misconception is that this makes toki pona words ambiguous. However, each toki pona word has a single meaning. Each meaning is just very vague compared to a typical English word. toki pona words are all extremely imprecise, as seen by how the one word toki
can describe so many different scenarios. Compare this to the numerous, more specific English words that can be used to describe each situation individually.
A note on some exceptions
There are some words which have more than one meaning. This is usually the result of a word's definition being that of a specific object, and then multiple meanings being derived from the qualities of that object.
For example, the archetypical lipu
is a paper document with writing on it. However, one could call a tissue a lipu
by virtue of its flatness, or call a website a lipu
by virtue of its role as a document of text. In this way, lipu
behaves as if it has two different meanings, although they are derived from the same source.