toki pona, worldbuilding
toki pona doesn't make sense to us as the only language spoken in a region
this isn't why the idea of a "ma pona" sucks - see https://mimuki.net/thoughts/mapona/ - but like
a language of a society needs to be efficient for society's purposes because it is used constantly, and can afford to be large in scope because it is practiced constantly
there's no reason, in a society, for the only language to lack a word for "medicine" - and toki pona has such a word that a good third of speakers refuse to use
the word for "old", two-thirds skip
the word for "untrue", four-fifths
the word for "fluffy", six-sevenths
in a speculative fiction world where toki pona is a language of a region, we think it would be *a* language of a region - something people speak in addition to their other languages, and probably for the same reason they speak it online: because it's fun and interesting
otherwise it would cease to be toki pona at all
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re: toki pona, worldbuilding
@Felthry because part of what makes toki pona fun and inspiring is needing to figure out how to talk about things in simple terms - to ask questions like "what *is* fiction?" and "what *is* hanging out with a friend?" and come up with explanations of things that, in other languages, would just be words
the creator of the language talked about why "friend" isn't a word in the language - she calls her friends "jan pona", good people, people she appreciates ... and if a friend is "jan pona", then what would a bad friend be? a contradiction in terms
the whole thing started as a philosophical exercise in *not* having words
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