Canadian constructs minimalist language ‘Toki Pona’
It’s no Esperanto, but “Toki Pona,” a lingo invented by Canadian Sonja Elen Kisa, has people talking. Based on an intentionally minimal lexicon of 120 words, Kisa created the “simple language of good” during a period of depression.
An article explains that her method is backed by the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which says that language affects the way people think and behave. A psychiatrist quoted in the article says that Toki Pona “is meant to focus on the positive, so negative thought patterns and cognitions can be transferred and eliminated by simply using the language.”
More about Toki Pona:
Its minimalism is attracting a growing following of Toki Ponians. Since publishing the tenets of her language on the Internet in 2001, Ms. Kisa, 28 and based in Toronto, estimates several hundred people have dabbled in it - and at least 100 speak it fluently, mostly in online chat rooms and blogs.
A Colorado programmer is developing an apocalyptic computer game with Toki Pona as the spoken language. An Israeli-German singer and member of the Stuttgart Chamber Choir is including it in a concert of musical pieces composed in constructed languages, alongside Esperanto and Star Trek’s Klingon.
Click here to read the full article by Siobhan Roberts.
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