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A Compact Language

Author: Peter Kaminski Issue: 2025-05-07

A Compact Language

by Peter Kaminski

I’ve been fascinated by human language since I was a teenager. One of my interests has been “constructed languages,” languages created by one or a few people, rather than evolved over centuries or millennia.

Today I’d like to tell you a little about Toki Pona, a minimalist language created by linguist Sonja Lang in 2001, and why I find it interesting. (A quick note: names are usually capitalized in English, which is why I capitalize “Toki Pona,” but within the language itself, it would not be capitalized: “toki pona”.)

Toki Pona has a total of around 120-140 words, and a simplified orthography (spelling) and phonology (sounds) that make it accessible to many people around the world, not just English or European-language speakers.

The most common way to write Toki Pona is with a reduced set (14) of Latin letters, but there are a few other writing systems, including a set of simple drawn characters, one per word, by Lang herself; or a more visually rich, artistic writing system that looks sort of like Mayan hieroglyphics created by Jonathan Gabel.

Americans who go overseas often wonder why people don’t speak English; English speakers often assume other languages are more or less like English just with different words.

But often, using different languages requires adjusting your conceptualization process; you have to think differently to really use the language properly.

And so, the compact structure of the language, the playful, artistic writing systems, and finding ways to express your thoughts with the building blocks of the language invite those who use Toki Pona to conceptualize differently than English in a way that sounds interesting to me. I’m going to explore more.

Here are some starting points (or ask your LLM to tell you about Toki Pona):

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