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A cursed "dialect" of toki pona

Toki pona is a mostly a posteriori conlang; its vocabulary is almost entirely derived from an existing natural language.

This means that most words have an etymology tracing back to a real word from an existing natural language.

For example, akesi, sitelen, and kepeken are derived from dutch hagedis, schilderen, and gebruiken.

nimi, sina, and pimeja are derived from finnish nimi, sinä, and pimeä.

alasa, waso, and moli are derived from french à la chasse, oiseau, and mourir.


What if we were to un-tokiponize all the a posteriori words without changing the grammar?

This is just a silly thought i had; what would toki pona look like if all the words haven't been adapted to its minimalist phonology and phonotactics?

Of course, not all the source languages use the latin alphabet; the sources for the words include mandarin chinese, cantonese, and georgian, for example.

In that case, the most widely used romanization system will be used

Aside from that, here's a couple more "guidelines" to convert your toki pona into this "dialect":

  • If the language uses diacritics, it will be retained because most romanization systems also use diacritics.
  • If a word has an unclear etymology, just use the one you prefer.
  • If a word is a priori in origin, leave it as is.
  • Un-tokiponize proper names if they are already tokiponized.

    • I call this the nasin toki pona pi nimi tan or "the way of toki pona with original words" but if the name itself used this system, "toki pona" would be something like tok bona.


    As another preview of how cursed this nasin would look like, here's some toki pona texts "translated" into tok bona.


    lipu nanpa wan pi lipu pi ken jan ale (1st article of the universal declaration of human rights)

    jan alle li kamap long náčin ni: òna li ken towards li ken fari. jan alle li kamap long sama. jan alle li you e ken bilong pilim suuri. jan alle li ken fari e willen bona òna. jan alle li willen fari gebruiken náčin ni: òna li jan bona towards jan ander.


    tomo palisa Pape (tower of Babel)

    jan alle li gebruiken e tok sama.
    jan li kamap dan náčin bilong kamap suno li kamap towards maa Sinale li houden long ni. jan li tok e ni:
    "o kamap! mi multe o fari e kiven. o cxeli e òna."
    jan multe li tok e ni: "o kamap! mi multe o fari e domo multe e domo pȁlica suuri. zevit bilong domo pȁlica li long zevit kōng.
    nimi bilong mi multe o kamap suuri! mi willen ara e ni: mi multe li long maa ander multe."
    jan zevit Jawe li kamap en-bas li lukim e maa domo e domo pȁlica.
    jan zevit Jawe li tok e ni: "jan li long maa one li gebruiken e tok sama li fari e domo pȁlica. tempo ni la òna li ken fari e io ilkeä multe. mi willen towards en-bas li willen pakala e tok bilong jan multe ni. mi willen e ni: jan li codna ara e tok bilong jan ander."
    jan zevit Jawe li kamap e ni: jan li long maa multe li ken ara fari e domo.
    nimi bilong maa domo ni li Pape dan ni: jan zevit Jawe li bagarap e tok bilong jan alle. jan zevit Jawe li towards e jan towards maa multe dan maa domo Pape.


    screw it *un-tokiponizes your toki pona*

    pakala a: mi tan e toki pona sina

    bagarap a: mi dan e tok bona sinä


    Extra cursed-ness may be created by pronouncing the words according to its language of origin.