#language of good

[tokiponaalanguageofgood]

Toki Pona: The Language of Good

Introduction

Toki Pona is a constructed language (conlang) created by Sonja Lang, a Canadian linguist, in 2001. The language is designed to express maximal meaning with minimal complexity, embodying the principles of simplicity, positivity, and minimalism. With a vocabulary of around 120-137 root words, Toki Pona is one of the smallest functional languages in existence, making it unique among other conlangs and natural languages.

Philosophy and Purpose

The primary goal of Toki Pona is to simplify thoughts and communication. Inspired by Taoist philosophy, the language encourages speakers to focus on the essential aspects of life, promoting a positive and minimalist worldview. By using fewer words, Toki Pona challenges its users to think more deeply about what they want to convey, often resulting in more mindful and deliberate communication.

Structure and Grammar

Vocabulary: Toki Pona's limited vocabulary is designed to be flexible and combinatory. Each root word can have multiple meanings depending on context, and complex ideas are expressed by combining these root words. For example, the word "jan" means "person," and by combining it with other words, you can create terms like "jan pona" (good person or friend) or "jan lili" (child or small person).

Phonology: The phonetic structure of Toki Pona is simple and easy to learn, consisting of only 14 phonemes: 9 consonants (p, t, k, s, m, n, l, j, w) and 5 vowels (a, e, i, o, u). The syllable structure is also straightforward, typically following a (C)V(n) pattern, where C represents a consonant and V represents a vowel.

Grammar: The grammar of Toki Pona is minimalistic and regular. Sentences typically follow a Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) order, but the language is highly flexible in terms of syntax. There are no tenses, cases, or genders, and plurals are often implied rather than explicitly marked. For instance, "mi moku" can mean "I eat," "I am eating," or "I will eat," depending on the context.

Usage and Community

Despite its simplicity, Toki Pona has a vibrant and active community of speakers worldwide. The language is used in various online forums, social media groups, and even in real-life meetups. The Toki Pona community is known for its creativity and enthusiasm, often coming up with new ways to use and expand the language within its minimalist framework.

Applications and Benefits

Cognitive and Linguistic: Learning and using Toki Pona can enhance cognitive abilities, such as problem-solving and creativity, due to its requirement for speakers to reframe and simplify complex ideas. It also provides an interesting lens through which to study linguistic relativity, exploring how language shapes thought.

Cultural and Social: Toki Pona promotes a culture of mindfulness, positivity, and minimalism. It encourages users to focus on what is truly important and to find contentment in simplicity. This aspect of the language has resonated with people seeking a more mindful and minimalist lifestyle.

Educational: Toki Pona is often used as a teaching tool in linguistics and cognitive science to demonstrate how language can influence thought processes. Its simplicity makes it an excellent starting point for those interested in conlangs or linguistics.

Toki Pona is more than just a language; it is a way of thinking and living. Its simplicity and focus on positivity and mindfulness offer a refreshing alternative in a world often characterized by complexity and excess. Whether you are a linguist, a language enthusiast, or someone seeking a simpler way of life, Toki Pona has something valuable to offer. As you embark on your journey to learn and use Toki Pona, you will discover a new perspective on communication and thought, one that celebrates the beauty of simplicity and the power of words.

[tontonguetonks]

o tawa ma! o lukin e mun! ona li suli li loje 🌕

[morguezsz]

idk man. i just think itd be really cool if sign language classes were mandatory throughout primary school. yeah because it would make communication with deaf kids and autistic/nonverbal kids much easier. and those kids would be accessible to the others so they could make friends and have healthy relationships. yeah. and kids would eat that shit up man. like their own little secret language? they love that.

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

the fact that shakespeare was a playwright is sometimes so funny to me. just the concept of the "greatest writer of the English language" being a random 450-year-old entertainer, a 16th cent pop cultural sensation (thanks in large part to puns & dirty jokes & verbiage & a long-running appeal to commoners). and his work was made to be watched not read, but in the classroom teachers just hand us his scripts and say "that's literature"

just...imagine it's 2450 A.D. and English Lit students are regularly going into 100k debt writing postdoc theses on The Simpsons screenplays. the original animation hasn't even been preserved, it's literally just scripts and the occasional SDH subtitles.txt. they've been republished more times than the Bible

[taimanzano]

One of one. One, alone, one.

[stars-obsession-pit]

“Mom, why do you think ghosts are intrinsically evil?”

“It’s what the science says, of course!”

“No, I mean like, what were the studies? What did they actually observe”

“Ohh, I get what you mean, Danny! Well across all reputable reports of encounters with the ghosts strong enough to matter, they’ve always attacked first and never responded to attempts at communication! There’s no reason for them to do that if they’re not evil!”

“Huh…”

…

Danny, learning about Ghost Speak and how humans can’t understand it: hmm.

Danny, learning that ghosts greet each other and bond by fighting: hmmm.

[soup-mother]

this is a niche one but instead of "they would not fuckin say that" it's "they would not fucking use American sign language".

ASL is not the only sign language. two british characters in your fanfiction would not be using ASL. England in fact has its own kind of sign language, BSL, that forms a sign family with many other sign languages around the world.

ASL isn't even the original member of its sign family, it comes from french sign language. do you know sign languages aren't related to spoken languages? that's an important one! it's not a direct 1:1 with people speaking English around the world. people in other countries don't learn ASL just in case they run into an usamerican or Canadian (who do often use it)

i know the entire world is the USA or whatever and sign languages do sometimes borrow from ASL for signs they don't have, but please be aware that there are other sign languages and families in the world that are not in fact ASL.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Vibes based grading system.

(for @epistemologys, who wanted some post-canon, teacher WWX)

[choccy-milky]

seb about to learn every language there is 📚📚

[pearlore]

@eydilily 's gempearl designs r so gorgeous i had to draw........ also a swap?? ft. some nzsl bc i was briefly possessed by the spirit of. hands.

[thora-otg-xp]

I just want him to be as petty as he can possibly be honestly

[princip1914]

Can’t stop thinking about how all of S2, Aziraphale is throwing himself at Crowley physically (the hand on his chest in the bar, the dance, the hand on his shoulder when Gabe and Beez say being together is more important than sides) waiting for Crowley to make the next move, while Crowley is throwing himself at Aziraphale emotionally (trying to make the humans fall in love by engineering a rainstorm, letting Aziraphale drive his car, recommending Alpha Centauri as a place for Gabe and Beez to go). And how in the final 15, they finally get closer to giving the other what they have been asking for all season, but it’s twisted and miscommunicated: “come with me” Aziraphale says and all Crowley hears is “to heaven”; “I need you” Aziraphale says, and all Crowley hears is “to change for me”; Crowley grabs Aziraphale and kisses him the way Aziraphale has wanted all season and Aziraphale, thinking it’s a temptation away from Heaven, forgives him instead of kissing him back.

[dolceaspidenera]

We all know at this point that the name Astarion is connected to the word "star" (starry or little star).

But Larian decided that they wanted to go all in with the details and they delivered!

The flower you can place on his tomb in the final romance scene (which I think is such a cute and tender gesture and I love his reaction to it), seems to be an Ornithogalum umbellatum, a star-shaped white flower with six petals. Among the plant's many common names, there are summer snowflake, starflower, and star-of-Bethlehem.

Moreover, in the language of flowers, its meanings are related to trauma, mourning, and welcoming pain without repressing it.

According to Doctor Edward Bach (1886 – 1936), these flowers are "For those who find themselves in a state of great anguish due to situations that, in a given period, have caused so much unhappiness", and can be used to help with the aftermath of a trauma, the alleviation of pain and the mourning process.

Edit: every time I see an artist include this flower in their Astarion fanart my heart swells with joy. Love this community

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

Am I the asshole for getting my best friend killed?

I swear to God, it was an accident.

My (27) BF (34) has a reputation for getting himself out of any jam you can imagine; and at first it was just a fun little thing the friend group noticed: there goes Oily J wiggling his way out of trouble again. but as the meme evolved in the group, it got to the point where we'd loykey started getting him into situations just to see how he'd get out of 'em, and he akept getting out of em. He was having fun with it too same as us. "Oh you guys," he'd say, "getting me into situations again," before laughing it off and getting out of it, so it was enrichment for our shared enclosures, and as time went on, the situations got more intense.

The trouble is, it turns out that putting a man in too many situations eventually gets the police interested. And not local hobsknockers cops either; they was like, proper three-letter FEDs. They put out a bounty on any information pertaining to his capture and everything. It was good money too so I thought, hey why don't I put J in another situation he can wiggle out of like always (and he'd wiggled outta worse before, so I thought this one'd be relatively mild), and at the next boardgame night (cause it was too late to do anything special for this one) we can buy some extra strong booze and get absolutely blitzed while having a giggle about the situation.

Boardgame night, and we were playing some social deduction nonsense or another and he says: "One of you is gonna betray me tonight." and I can't help but think, looking back on it, that he knew. It's stupid, I know he was talking about the game, but the way he said it, it was like he knew. We all felt it, and we had a big round robin round the table taking turns promising that we'd never betray him. And I said it so easily cause I thought it was true. Sure, I was gonna talk to the feds about a bounty; but, I fully expected my big beautiful oily boy to wiggle his way out of the trouble I was 'bout to cause, and that's not a betrayal. I wasn't lying. I didn't think I was lying.

My big beautiful oily boy didn't manage to wiggle his way out of it. They killed him and I got my blood money. He's gone.

He's gone and I'm devastated, crying, mourning. I loved him so much. We all did. And I can't stop thinking that it's my fault: that I'm the reason he's gone. and it is. and the guilt is eating me up inside. and I just need to talk to someone about it. So, I tell the rest of the group what happened in the group chat, hoping they'd understand that I didn't want this. I didn't want the government's blood money. It was supposed the be a prank. some joint enclosure enrichment. He was supposed to wiggle out of it like he always does... did, i mean.

They call me, among worse things, the asshole and kick me from the group chat. And, I know it's my fault he's dead: I know that. If I didn't do what I did, he wouldn't be dead right now. But, I didn't mean it for it to end up this way. He was supposed to be okay, damn it. I loved him. AITA?

What are these acronyms?

[critterbitter]

Language divides and building bridges.

Elesa’s feeling homesick. Emmet, bless his heart, tries to help by infodumping while Ingo frantically runs off to find water (crying is a very dehydrating experience).

((Would you look at that! The kids are picking up kantonese and galarian from each other!))

BONUS:

Heh. Callback.

Want to see more? Here’s the masterpost for submas!

[hinamie]

playing around w slightly different hair renders