4 ms·

the Toki Pona conlang uses only 14 letters, and has a philosophy of simplicity/minimalism, so this is a tiny computer with a reduced keyboard specifically for t

the Toki Pona conlang uses only 14 letters, and has a philosophy of simplicity/minimalism, so this is a tiny computer with a reduced keyboard specifically for the language it's more or less an art piece, yes

jan_Inkepa 7y ago
The input system is a bit fancier/more obscure than that. Toki Pona uses 14 letters when written with the Latin alphabet (on screen, for those confused, it's displayed as Sitelen Pona, a hieroglyphic writing system for Toki Pona - http://tokipona.net/tp/janpije/hieroglyphs.php http://tokipona.net/tp/janpije/hieroglyphs.php ). But because there are 120 words in total, you can merge letters without any ambiguity arising (merging 'b' and 'p' in english lets you still distinguish 'bell' from 'potato'). Because there's a closed list of 120 words you can bring this to an extreme of requiring only six input-buttons for the characters (so, e.g. 't', 'o', and 'k' are all on the same button), and the computer can disambiguate. (This approach was inspired by Book Pahlavi - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pahlavi_scripts#Book_Pahlavi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pahlavi_scripts#Book_Pahlavi ). It's a bit of an art piece, but I also still use it daily for journalling :)
- bravura 7y ago
  I know you say it was difficult to build and you won’t do it again, but you should consider selling these and sharing the joy with other people who wants to enjoy this language.
- jzwinck 7y ago
  Thank you for sharing. The example of B vs P is interesting, as modern Korean has the same. The airport code for Busan (South Korea) is PUS because there is no practical difference between B and P in Korean. Same with G/K, R/L, and D/T: each pair is interchangeable and has been subject to changing fashion over the years in Gorea.
  - int_19h 7y ago
    The sounds are different in this case. You can use a single letter to denote both, because the sound is unambiguous from context.

jan_Inkepa 7y ago

The input system is a bit fancier/more obscure than that. Toki Pona uses 14 letters when written with the Latin alphabet (on screen, for those confused, it's displayed as Sitelen Pona, a hieroglyphic writing system for Toki Pona - http://tokipona.net/tp/janpije/hieroglyphs.php http://tokipona.net/tp/janpije/hieroglyphs.php ). But because there are 120 words in total, you can merge letters without any ambiguity arising (merging 'b' and 'p' in english lets you still distinguish 'bell' from 'potato'). Because there's a closed list of 120 words you can bring this to an extreme of requiring only six input-buttons for the characters (so, e.g. 't', 'o', and 'k' are all on the same button), and the computer can disambiguate. (This approach was inspired by Book Pahlavi - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pahlavi_scripts#Book_Pahlavi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pahlavi_scripts#Book_Pahlavi ). It's a bit of an art piece, but I also still use it daily for journalling :)

bravura 7y ago
I know you say it was difficult to build and you won’t do it again, but you should consider selling these and sharing the joy with other people who wants to enjoy this language.
jzwinck 7y ago
Thank you for sharing. The example of B vs P is interesting, as modern Korean has the same. The airport code for Busan (South Korea) is PUS because there is no practical difference between B and P in Korean. Same with G/K, R/L, and D/T: each pair is interchangeable and has been subject to changing fashion over the years in Gorea.
- int_19h 7y ago
  The sounds are different in this case. You can use a single letter to denote both, because the sound is unambiguous from context.