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Toni Poka is neat, but not very expressive (as the intent. It makes a fun little language to learn though. Engadget (think it was them) did a lengthy write up a
by throwaway7645 10y ago
Toni Poka is neat, but not very expressive (as the intent. It makes a fun little language to learn though. Engadget (think it was them) did a lengthy write up awhile back. I'd rather learn something mind expanding like Lojban than restrictive like Toki Pona. However, I did read that it can be a useful exercise to come up with phrases to explain a concept/word your language doesn't have. Toki Pona probably doesn't have "computer", but maybe you can represent that with "glowing communications box"?
- anotheryou 10y agoI chose it because the effort is so low and I wondered what thinking with such limited vocabulary feels like. Computer might be: ilo sona - device of knowledge
- throwaway7645 10y agoHaha. Glad you were able to translate that.
- schoen 10y agoI'd agree toki pona is unlikely to be as mind-expanding as Lojban, but the kind of creativity that you mention, working within constraints, can be "mind-expanding" too -- just as composing poetry within a specific form, or practicing constrained writing, can be. Even though there are some fundamental designed-in limitations in toki pona (for example, we don't officially have comparatives, relative clauses, or quotation! you can say "a is a little x and b is very x" or use a kind of formula with "x this: y"), it can be surprising how many things can be expressed reasonably well given the effort.