[kaoD]

Toki Pona isn't meant as a universal language to be translated from nor to translate into (unlike e.g. Esperanto). When you translate from/to, a lot of subtleties are lost (which is exactly what Toki Pona intends).

Toki Pona is just a "toy" language (for lack of a better adjective), somewhat like yoga for the language (for lack of a better simile). Each person uses Toki Pona in their own way: for some it's pushing language to the limit, for some it's just fun, some others consider it an experiment in psychology, an experiment in language construction, an introspection tool, a challenge, poetry in and of itself...

Obviously it's not the best to communicate precisely, just like yoga asanas aren't meant to walk.

[sago]

Perhaps 'recreational' rather than 'toy' is a better word. :) The analogy with yoga is good, or plenty of programming languages. They make you better as a person, stretch you, widen your knowledge, and expand your mind, without necessarily being directly useful. For me it is enjoyable, definitely poetry. Though the opportunities to actually speak it is very limited.

sina sona ala sona e toki pona? (do you know it?) ... if so: sina kama sona tan seme?

[kaoD]

I assume "sina kama sona tan seme?" means "where did you learn it from?". Did I get that right?

A small nitpick: proper nouns have to be preceded by a Toki Pona common noun or noun phrase (in this case toki, language) and then the proper noun in capitalized case. E.g.: toki Toki Pona, telo Coca Cola, etc. I.e. proper nouns must modify a preceding common Toki Pona noun.

---

mi toki e toki Toki Pona. taso mi jo ala e tenpo mute. tan tenpo suli la mi toki ala e toki Toki Pona. mi kama sona tan tan mute. lipu Tokipona.net en lipu Tokipona.org en lipu Reddit.com/r/tokipona li pona. lipu Tokipona.org li anpa. taso lipu Forums.tokipona.org li pali. sina wile la sina ken toki tawa mi lon ni: "el" en nimi mi pi lipu HN, lon kulupu Gmail.

(I speak Toki Pona, but I don't have a lot of time. It's been a long time not talking Toki Pona. I've learn it from many different sources. tokipona.net, tokipona.org, /r/tokipona are good. tokipona.org is down but forums.tokipona.org is still working. If you want, you can contact me at "el" concatenated with my HN username at gmail.)

[sago]

Nitpicking is welcome! mi toki mute alla pona. I've not seen 'toki Toki Pona' used that way though, I've rarely seen it capitalised and used as a proper noun. So 'sona e toki pona' (nimi pi lipu pi jan Piljin e 'o kama sona e toki pona!'). That said, the rule for the extra verb I end up dropping quite often from carelessness, so 'sina telo allo telo Coca Cola?' rather than 'sina telo allo telo telo Coca Cola?' So it was a good nitpick.

'tan seme' is usually 'why', I think (I learned it as a compound lexicon entry I guess). 'sine sona kama tan seme?' for where from?

Thanks.

[kaoD]

Ah! Very true. My Toki Pona is very rusty as you can see. I forgot a lot of compound lexicon and idioms :(

I've always seen 'Toki Pona' used as a proper noun following the proper noun rules to avoid confusion with 'good talk' and the like (which I guess is the purpose of the rule in the first place, as well as discouraging proper nouns). I learnt it a long time ago so maybe the requirement has been dropped? Or lousy usage since it's very common that people forget to follow the proper noun rule. In 'kama sona e toki pona' I'd be inclined to understand "learning to talk well" rather than "learning Toki Pona". Perhaps that was the intent? Anyways, there's so much outdated and non-canonical material, and most of the canon has holes and even doesn't follow its own advice. And actual usage has diverted so much too (plus having zero native speakers everyone has their own usage). "Language-ing" is hard :P Even more so in a vague language like Toki Pona.

The Coca Cola example would require 'e' to mark the direct object ('sina telo ala telo e telo Coca Cola'). I've grown so accustomed to a common noun following 'e' that it missing sounds really jarring.

mi toki e toki Toki Pona tan ni: toki Toki Pona li musi tawa mi. toki Toki Pona li pona kin tawa ali! tenpo suli la mi toki mute e toki Toki Pona. taso tenpo ni la mi toki lili e ni.