Toqui Pona
a.k.a. Toki Pona but with Spanish orthography rules
a.k.a. Toki Pona but the RAE got it’s Spanish-from-Spain little hands on it
Toqui Pona is basically an alternate way to write Toki Pona using the Latin alphabet, a nasin sitelen if you will. It is also a joke. And cursed. And not very good looking.
Toqui Pona is also kind of a way for us to have fun with the not quite written rules of Spanish, the ones we only learn from fun fact corners in magazines, Wikipedia articles in English and thinking about things. It’s also a cool reason for us to explain Spanish spelling. Making fun of the RAE was mostly a bonus thing.
There’s a short version of the explanation, which is more of cheat sheet really, and there’s the long version, which explains the hows and whys of things. At the end of the page, there are some example sentences written first in the normal sitelen Lasina and then in the nasin Epanja.
Toqui Pona, the short version:
- /k/ is spelled with “qu” when followed by /e/ or /i/. It’s spelled with “c” when followed by any other vowel.
- /j/ is spelled “y”
- /w/ can be spelled as “u”, “hu”, or “gu” and “gü”. “gü” is used when in front of /e/ or /i/, “gu” is used when before /a/.
- Spelling /w/ using “u” after a syllable ending in /n/ is forbidden.
- All three syllable words are spelled with an acute accent (´) over their first syllable’s vowel. This follows Spanish’s stress-marking rules for esdrújulas.
- Words longer that three syllables are an unknown land. Do as you feel is best.
- Unless you pronounce them with the stressed syllable on any of the last three syllables. Then just use the normal stress-marking rules; marking if it’s on the last or third to last syllable.
- Questions must start with an opening question mark (¿) and end with a closing question mark (?).
- Exclamations must start with an opening exclamation mark (¡) and end with a closing exclamation mark (!).
- Optional stuff:
- A word that starts with a vowel can be spelled with “h” at the start.
- /s/ can also be spelled with “c” before /e/ or /i/ and “z” before /a/, /e/ or /u/. Some dialects pronounce these as /θ/.
- /j/ can also be spelled with “ll”. Some dialects pronounce this /ʎ/.
- Some people pronounce “nj” (as in "toki Epanja") as [nʲ]. Therefore it can be written as “ñ”.
Toqui Pona, the long version:
- /ki/ and /ke/ are spelled “qui” and “que” respectively. This is because the letter “k” in Spanish is only used in loanwords and non-Spanish names. The only way to spell the sound /k/ when it’s followed by /i/ or /e/ is with the digraph “qu”, which is pronounced /k/ and is only used to spell those syllables.
- /ka/, /ko/ and /ku/ are spelled with “c” instead of “k”. Same as above, but with the caveat that “c” can’t be used to spell /ki/ or /ke/ because, when followed by /i/ or /e/, the letter “c” reads /s/ (or /θ/ (voiceless dental fricative), if your dialect has that consonant)
- /j/ is written with “y”. In most dialects (read: “not ours”), the “y”, when acting as a consonant, reads as /ʝ/ (palatal fricative) or something close to that, which is close enough for us. One could use the digraph “ll”, but keep in mind that in some dialects it still reads /ʎ/ (voiced palatal lateral approximant).
- /w/… isn’t really a consonant that exists in Spanish. Sure, the letter is there, but like “k”, it’s only used in loanwords and names form languages that use that letter. Except unlike “k”, it’s not a sound that was already there, you know? Anyways, that’s why we’re replacing it with /gu/ when at the start or a word and with /ɰu/ everywhere else. At the start of a word it can be spelled “u”, “hu” or “gu” when in front of /a/ and “gü” when in front of /i/ or /e/. This is because “g” changes pronunciation when in front of those vowels, and so to spell /ge/ and /gi/ the digraph “gu” is used, but then how do you spell /gue/ or /gui/? The answer is putting diaeresis on the “u” to indicate that you’re supposed to pronounce it, that’d be those two dots on the top of it. The “h” in Spanish is silent, so “hu” and “u” are pronounced the same, but using “hu” makes it clearer that this is supposed to be a consonant. When in the middle of a word you can choose between using “gu”/”gü”, using a plain “u” or using “hu”. To avoid confusion, using “u” to write the /w/ when the preceding consonant ends in /n/ is forbidden.
- Stress marking follows the usual rules. However, in Toki Pona the stresses syllable is always the first syllable. Meaning that all words are graves or esdújulas and since all Toki Pona words end either in /n/ or a vowel, that means we only have to worry about three syllable words! (well, some nimisin are more than three syllables long, making them technically sobreesdrújulas, but there aren’t really any proper rules for those, so… do whatever, i guess.) These words will always have an acute mark (tilde) on it’s first syllable. For example: “pakala” would be spelled “pácala”
- Questions must start with an opening question mark (¿) and end with a closing question mark (?).
- Exclamations must start with an opening exclamation mark (¡) and end with a closing exclamation mark (!).
- You can put an “h” at the start of a word that starts with a vowel if you want. “h” is silent in Spanish.
- /s/ is spelled the same, but if you want to, you can use “z” or “c” with the following rules: “z” can’t go before “e” or “i”. “c” can’t go before “a”, “o” or “u” (see second bullet point). Keep in mind that some in some dialects these are pronounced /θ/ (voiceless dental fricative).
- Some people pronounce “nj” (as in "toki Epanja") as [nʲ] (palatalized alveolar nasal). If they want to, they can write it as “ñ”.
Example sentences:
mi toki tawa jan pona mi. ona li wile sona e pali mi.
mi toqui taua yan pona mi. ona li uile sona e pali mi.
ilo mi lon seme? mi ken ala lukin e ona.
¿ilo mi lon seme? mi quen ala luquin e ona.
soweli mi li pilin wawa mute. ni li ike tawa kasi mi.
sóhueli mi li pilin guagua mute. ni li hique tahua casi mi.
mi kama tan ni: mi kute kalama sama pakala.
mi cama tan ni: mi cute cálama sama pácala.
kala ni li alasa li moku e kala ante.
cala ni li álasa li mocu e cala ante.