Sitelen Pona

The name “Rivka” in Toki Pona

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The Sitelen Pona glyph for "soweli" with its eyes replaced with the name "Wika", formed out of "wan insa kulupu ante".

I go by Rifkele dos Ketsele in my visual art life, and it’s close to my name in real life. The name Rifkele is a diminutive of Rifke, which is “Rebecca” in Ashkenazi Hebrew. The Modern Hebrew equivalent is Rivka. In the 130-word minimalist constructed language Toki Pona, names are all adapted to a very … Read more

How do you say “Free Palestine” in Toki Pona?

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The Palestinian flag with overlayed Toki Pona text: kulupu Palasin o ken ali! (May Palestinians have full rights!)

Toki Pona is a 130-word minimalist constructed language created by Sonja Lang. Because of the extreme paucity of words, you have to really think about what you mean when you translate something. This makes it a great tool for clarifying your own thoughts. There is no single word for “free” in Toki Pona. The community-sourced … Read more