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Published 8 years ago by BlueOracle with 16 Comments
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Conversation 7 comments by 5 users
  • Zeus
    +4

    Alright, who wants to found /t/TokiPona? ;)

    • ObiWanShinobi (edited 8 years ago)
      +6

      Well, I might be interested. But sick had the right idea, you did come up with it first, so I'll defer to you. I'm definitely interested in learning it, though, so let me know if you make a tribe and I'll be it's first member.

    • sick
      +6

      LOL, you had the idea, YOU do it.

    • Metatron
      +3

      Please do it.

      • Zeus
        +2

        Done and done.

        • BlueOracle
          +2

          I added this snap to get you started. ;)

          You all are great! I'm glad you're interested in this. :D

          • Zeus
            +2

            Thanks!

            I guess you could say everyone here are jan pona :D

  • TheEnglishMajor
    +8

    Either do it or don’t do it. There’s no word for please or thank you. I mean, maybe if you really wanted, you could say pona, but then why would you overuse a word that’s so big and powerful?

    I want to learn this language, if only because I think it would have a particular effect on how I view the entire concept of communication. What can I cut? What can I combine? Where am I wasting precious words?

    Tweak a single phoneme and arrive at a strange new variation of a thought. Tweak by tweak, a speaker could wander forever through an endless landscape of unique thoughts in a kind of linguistic dérive.

    Ithkuil sounds just as interesting, but rather inefficient and OVERWHELMING. The idea that the creator wanted to kill the ambiguity that fascinates him just delights me.

    Thank you for sharing this article!

  • spaceghoti
    +6

    Was this the inspiration for the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode Darmok?

    • melanoleuca
      +7

      I thought of the same thing as I read this article. Darmok is hands down my favorite episode of TNG! I routinely say, "Temba, his arms wide" to my husband when I'm handing him something. Even if Toki Pona wasn't the inspiration for the TNG episode, they certainly function on the same basic principles. Imagine a world in which language had no nuance - no one could get their feelings hurt because a stranger referred to them as "boy" instead of "man" (or vice versa). Although, I think it would complicate things a bit on the internet.

    • Zeus (edited 8 years ago)
      +5

      I think of that episode all the time! I love how Next Generation handled alien cultures.

    • MillenCioran
      +4

      When the walls fell!

  • douglas77
    +2

    Very interesting article, thanks! /u/Zeus, found /t/TokiPona already! :)

    There is just one little thing that I need to say, otherwise my brain will be itchy all day:

    In Icelandic, a compass is a direction-shower, and a microscope a small-watcher.

    Microscope = μικρός (small) + σκοπέω (look, watch). No need to study Icelandic for that combination :)

  • Xeriel
    +2

    I always find these artificially created languages really interesting, and I'll probably never learn one.

    The fact that this will never, ever be actually useful is just too much for me to justify investing the time. I'd love to see an international community just pick one, and push for a common tongue on a large scale somehow.

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