Tuesday 25 September 2007

Vocab down, grammar to go..

As I predicted in a previous entry, learning the vocab of Toki Pona has proved quicker than learning the grammar. This is despite most of the 118 words being a priori for me with few mnemonic hooks to aid learning. I used these Toki Pona flashcards to confirm that I have memorized all 118 words, and can translate the cards in both directions (TP to Eng, Eng to TP). The one TP word I had trouble with was lupa, I kept thinking it was lapu, perhaps confusing it with lape. I do find there is a fair bit of "phonological crowding" in TP, eg. toki, pona, poki, poka; suwi, suli, seli etc. I have also learnt some of the compounds (formed from two or more TP words to express more concepts).

There are definitely some aspects of the grammar that are giving me problems, eg. the rules for when to use pi. The only way to nail the grammar is to go back over the lessons, this time at a much slower pace. Now I have the vocab down, it should be possible to focus on the grammar this time, so hopefully by the time I've finished the second pass I should have Toki Pona down.

I'm still missing TP translations for some English words: follow, live, shut, begin, space. Perhaps some of these need paraphrases, eg. follow = tawa lon monsi jan ante or tawa lon nasin pi jan ante (depending on the context). I've joined the official Toki Pona group at Yahoo.

4 comments:

LaPingvino said...

Bonveno en la Tokipono-listo!
Bonvenon en la Tokipono-listo!
Welcome to the toki pona list!
kama pona lon kulupu pi toki pona!

jan Mimoku
jan lawa pi kulupu pona

Rick Miller said...

"follow" -> "tawa nasin"
It doesn't have to be as difficult as you made it seem. "Follow" can be treated as a transitive verb.
"Follow your heart."
-> "o tawa nasin e pilin insa."

"live" is too vague in English. You probably mean the opposite of "moli" (death). Living is the default state. Are you talking about spending time or specifying your location?
"being" -> "lon"
"waiting/staying" -> "awen".
"live-at"/"live-in" -> "lon"

Using the verb phrase "open ala" with a direct object should be pretty clear.
"shut ..." -> "open ala e ..."

"begin" -> "open"

What kind of "space"?
"ma sewi"?
"ma pi ijo ala"?

idojc said...

toki!
Rick, can you explain why "tawa nasin" suffices here? If "nasin" is a noun then I think it needs a preposition between "tawa" and "nasin", either "lon" or "kepeken". tawa+Noun seems to mean "go to N", eg. tawa tomo ni "go to my house".

I don't agree that Ido "vivar" is vague - I think it is well-defined. But I accept that in Toki Pona it is "(li) lon".

I can see now that "ala" is also used to form opposites, but it seems you need to use "pi" with noun/adjs such as "wawa", so weak = pi wawa ala.

Are you sure that "kama" is not better for "begin"?

By space I mean as in space-time, or an open space. I don't mean as in spaceship or a gap as in parking space. I'm also lacking a word for "place" in Toki Pona.

mi tawa.

idojc said...

mi pakala:

eg. tawa tomo ni "go to my house".

eg. tawa tomo Mi "go to my house".


suno pona.
jan Sen