lesson 8 - time and place

you'll usually hear people say that tenpo means "time." but what does that mean? what even is the abstract concept of time? this definition isn't very useful, so a different angle I suggest people take is to look at tenpo as either a situation or a duration. tenpo could be that one time I robbed a bank, or all the times I cooked with shmalts. tenpo could be a minute, or an hour, or an eon (1 billion years). tenpo can be the time when the sun shines, or the cycle it takes for the earth to rotate around the sun, or for the earth to rotate such that the sun goes away and comes back. tenpo can be the time when it's dark, the time when it's cold or warm, the time it takes for the moon to go through all its phases, the time it takes for markets to set up and disband a few times a week, the time when we work, the time when we sleep, the time when we travel, or the time when we arrive. tenpo can talk about the abstract concept of time, but usually it is used to talk about specific events, situations, and durations.

anpa refers to the space (or sometimes object) below something. For example, "anpa supa" is the space under a table. "anpa kasi" is the space under a plant. anpa can also refer to qualities of defeat and shame, such as beating someone in a game of chess. You can describe the loser as anpa, and you can use anpa as a verb to mean "beat." anpa can also talk about social stratification and hierarchy. A lower class person can be a jan anpa.

poka is at its core is anything, either an object or location, that is nearby or to the side of something else. This could be the space next to someone, or at the side of someone, such as the lefthand side of a walking person. But this can also be part of an object, such as someone's hips or a car door. Extended into the metaphorical space, poka becomes extremely useful for talking about relationships. toki ponists tend to place people and objects they have relationships with in proximity with them, so one might describe a friend as poka and a loose aquaintence as not poka. two things don't have to be physically next to each other in order to be "lon poka." my uncles live in aotearoa and I live in the USA on either Dakota or Lenape land depending on the time of year, but I would still describe our relationship using poka dispite the physical displacement.

The semantic space of monsi contains things that are behind another thing or the back part of a thing. The caboose of a trains is monsi. The space behind a building is monsi. A person's back is monsi. monsi is relative, so its semantic space will always depend on what object it is in relation to.

sinpin reffers to objects that face directions. walls can easily be sinpin, and so can human faces or any of the front part of an animal. the part of a building that faces the road can be sinpin. sinpin is not used as much as it should be and I encourage speakers to explore its semantic space more. If you have any further usages that aren't mentioned here, please let me know!

sinpin can't be extended into a metaphorical space to talk about time. "tenpo sinpin" might mean future or past to people from different cultures, so in order to use it like that you'd need to build it up by explaining the metaphor. For example, if you framed yourself as facing the past and walking backwards, you could even use "tenpo sinpin" to talk about the past!

insa talks about things inside of things. Commonly, this is used to describe a location. The location inside of a car is insa. It can also be used to describe objects that are inside of things. Someone's organs are insa. insa doesn't need to be contained completely, it can just mean "in between." A book in the middle of a bookshelf is insa. The space between two city buildings is insa. It can be used more abstractly too. When compared to a head, a mind is insa. In the context of good and bad, insa can be neutral. When compared to hot and cold, insa can be lukewarm. If anything is being framed as inside of something else, it falls under the semantic space of insa.

sewi embodies a very powerful conceptual metaphor that exists within toki pona. In toki pona, upwards and high things and divinity are connected. These are two seperate ideas that sewi connects by refering to both of them. Things that are religious or sacred can be sewi. For example, a religion could be "nasin sewi," religious art can be "sitelen sewi", and a god, practitioner, or religious wisdom holder can all be "jan sewi." sewi on its own can easily refer to that which is divine or worshipped. But sewi very simply talks about the space above something. "sewi kiwen" can mean "the space above the rock" or "the top of the rock." Keep in mind that all of these examples can work in the other sense of sewi. "nasin sewi" can mean an upwards direction, "sitelen sewi" can be the top painting of two paintings, and "jan sewi" can be someone who just climbed a big mountain. And of course, "sewi kiwen" could be the divinity of a rock.