This writer recently tackled the thankless tasks of explaining the insanely-complicated language Ithkuil. The experience was so traumatic that threats of resignation and civil disobedience could only be assuaged through promises of a much-simpler assignment. As if made to order, we find ourselves looking at Toki Pona, a language that consists of only 120 words.

That’s right — one hundred twenty words, with which you can communicate everything your heart desires. Well, more or less. In any event, it takes about as much time to learn the Toki Pona language as it did for us to figure out how to construct the single word “dog” in Ithkuil. In other words, it is a language that is supposed to be easy.

Toki Pona: Minimalism to the Extreme

Toki Pona is a constructed language (conlang). In other words, it is a made-up language. OK, technically, all languages are made up. What sets a conlang apart from all the others is that it is the result of a deliberate creation of a brand new way of communicating. Some conlangs are created just for fun. Others are designed for a purpose. Esperanto, for example, was supposed to become a universal language. Klingon is one of the most popular and has a version of the Bible in the language.

Toki Pona was created by Sonja Lang, a Canadian linguist and translator. She designed it to distill the meaning of life in as few words as possible. It’s an exercise in minimalism. It uses only these letters: a e i j k l m n o p s t u w. It began with 120 words in 2001. A few have been added over the years, bringing the total to about 140 today.

Even with its expanded vocabulary, Toki Pona’s lexicon is a far cry from the estimated 170,000 words in the English language. For that reason, you won’t be surprised that it takes more words to convey a thought than if you were using a more complex language. It’s kind of like if Marie Kondo decided to declutter your brain’s vocabulary section. Does this word “spark joy”? No? Then get rid of it.

Can You Really Talk With Just 120 (or 140) Words?

Here’s the kicker: you absolutely can have a conversation in Toki Pona. Is it going to be a bit abstract? Sure, but it’s doable. Take, for example, this quote from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night: “Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them.” Toki Pona would express it thusly:

“o tawa wawa tan ala lon pi pona suli. jan mute li kama suli. jan ante li pali suli. jan ante li kama jo e suli tan nasin.”

Broken down, it looks like this:

• “o tawa wawa ala lon pi pona suli”: Do not run in the presence of greatness (more loosely: “Do not be afraid of greatness.”)
  • o – (imperative or command, “do not” in this context)
  • tawa – going to; for; moving
  • wawa – strong, powerful; confident, energetic
  • tan – from, by, because
  • ala – not
  • lon – be present, exist
  • pi – of (used to group words)
  • pona – good, simple, positive (here interpreted as “great”)
  • suli – big, important, great
• “jan mute li kama suli”: Many people become great.
  • jan – person, people
  • mute – many
  • li – (separates subject from predicate)
  • kama – come, become
  • suli – great, important
• “jan ante li pali suli”: Other people work to become great.
  • jan – person, people
  • ante – other, different
  • li – (separates subject from predicate)
  • pali – do, make, work
  • suli – great, important
• “jan ante li kama jo e suli tan nasin”: Other people have greatness come to them from circumstances.
  • jan – person, people
  • ante – other, different
  • li – (separates subject from predicate)
  • kama – come, become
  • jo – have, possess
  • e – (introduces the object)
  • suli – great, important
  • tan – from
  • nasin – way, method, system

Admittedly, it loses a bit of the profundity from the Bard’s version, but it gets the point across — for the most part. Consider, for example, that there is no word for “afraid” in the original Toki Pona. The word “monsuta” has since been added to represent “fear,” “monster,” or “scary,” but it is not widely accepted as being part of the official language. That being the case, we went with the words “tawa wawa” which mean “run” or, at least, “move energetically” and “tan” which means “from.”

As you can imagine, you run the risk of losing some of the nuances with a language like this. It is the verbal equivalent of a minimalist IKEA couch. Consider, for example, our Ithkuil example at the beginning of this article. It took an utterly insane amount of time just to figure out how to write the word dog. In Toki Pona, there isn’t a word specifically for dog. Instead, soweli is used for any land mammal. If you want to distinguish the type of land mammal, you’re going to have to get creative or deal with the inherent ambiguity.

In Toki Pona, the word for book is “lipu.” It’s also the word for record, paper, document, and card. Basically, if it’s flat and vaguely resembles a sheet, congratulations, you’ve got yourself a lipu. Even web pages don’t escape the lipu life, because, well, they’re “pages,” too.

Some words do double (or triple) duty as both nouns and verbs. Take “lukin,” for example. It means eye, but it also means to see, to examine, to read, to watch — basically, any activity that requires those things on your face above your nose.

With so much multitasking going on, context becomes your best friend. For instance, lupa means both door and window. So, if we told you to close the lupa as you come in, we’re hoping you understand that we’re not asking you to close a window — unless, of course, you are a burglar and make it a practice to enter homes through the window.

Imagine that you have to be out of town and ask a friend to stop by each day and feed your cat. If speaking in Toki Pona, you would have told him to feed the soweli. If your cat is the only land mammal in the house, then there shouldn’t be any problem. If he gets there and finds that your house is infested with rats, he’s going to have to decide which of the land mammals you want him to feed.

A Language That Continues to Develop

Although Toki Pona started with just 120 words, a few have been added. Like any other language, this is not without controversy. Some new words have been generally accepted by the Toki Pona community. Others have been adopted by substantially smaller group of the language’s aficionados.

It also has developed various forms of writing. Toki Pona’s creator proposed a set of hieroglyphs in her book, Toki Pona: The Language of Good.

Admittedly, Toki Pona would not be your first choice for creating a contract or to use in a diplomatic negotiation sessions. There is something to be said, however, about its simplicity and minimalism. Estimates vary, but the official website mentions that there are now thousands of fluent speakers.

Pini Pilin (Concluding Thoughts)

So there you have it—Toki Pona, the little language that could. With little more than 100 words, it manages to distill life’s complexities into something remarkably simple. Sure, it might take some creativity and context clues to figure out whether you’re talking about a window or a door, but that’s part of the charm. In a world filled with noise, Toki Pona offers a refreshing linguistic detox, reminding us that sometimes, less really is more. Whether you’re looking for a weekend language project or just want to simplify your thoughts, Toki Pona might be the perfect fit. After all, do we really need 170,000 words?

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