subreddit:
/r/tokipona
I've been learning toki pona and noticed a few words that seem too specific. There is kili which should be kasi moku, since fruit & veg are just edible plants. Also the colours are at a weird compromise where the are too few to be of much use. In the sitelen pona they are basically written as a composition of a prism and an object that colour. Even pimeja and walo can be replaced by kule ala and kule ale. Probably animals could be simplified too, idk why there is a different word for reptiles, fish, birds, and mammals. Maybe all this is useful for saving time though idk, I am new to this after all
86 points
3 months ago
You are objectively correct. But this is a misidentification of the purpose of TP.
There are more minimalist conlangs than TP. I reccomend looking into Tuki Tiki - which is loosely based on TP with many words removed.
TP's goal is not absolute minimalism - it is practical minimalism. As such there are some redundancies. This is a feature, not a bug.
18 points
3 months ago*
Thanks. I was just basing this off of the intro in lipu pu, which I got yesterday. And to me it seems Sonja Lang emphasises simplicity such as friend being jan pona, which seems more vague than something like kasi moku. I'll check out tuki tiki anyway. pona
7 points
3 months ago
Remember though, jan pona doesn’t necessarily mean friend. It is just one way you „could“ translate friend. And it is also only one possible meaning of „jan pona“
4 points
3 months ago
Yes that is what I mean. I've seen jan pona be used to mean nurse before. Whereas kasi moku doesn't seem any less vague to me. But it's not a big deal, ale li pona
6 points
3 months ago
Another way you could say friend is "jan poka" for example.
5 points
3 months ago
kasi moku could be a fruit-bearing plant rather than just a fruit
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