lesson 9 - names

in toki pona, proper names are treated as modifiers, with a capitalized first letter. this means that you have to pick a word which describes what the thing is, and then modify that word with the tokiponized name.

names in toki pona are "tokiponized," which means fitting the name into toki pona phonotactics. the general guidelines to tokiponization are the following:

• use the local name and pronunciation
• syllables consist of a consonant, then a vowel, then an optional letter n.
• the consonant of the first syllable may be omitted.
• wu, wo, ji, and ti are illegal
• wu becomes u, wo becomes o, ji becomes i, and ti becomes si
• you can't follow up a syllable-final n with an m or another n
• d->t, b->p, v->w, f->p, r->w/l/k
• english r turns to w
• tapped or trilled r becomes l
• french/german r turns to k
• preserving syllable count is more important than preserving consonants
• if you're tokiponizing your own name - don't be scared to break a rule or two if the resulting name makes you happier! it's your name and you can do whatever you want with it

people use lots of different words to describe themselves in toki pona, not necessarily just jan, depending on what word(s) they identify with more. for example, i use soweli to describe myself!

keep this in mind when speaking toki pona!
for example, since not everyone is a jan, it doesn't make sense to translate everyone as jan ale, instead you should translate it as just ale.

another example: when you're talking about a diverse group of people, you can't know for sure if everyone in said group is a jan. in this case, perhaps using a more general word like ijo might be better, to avoid some feeling excluded.

basically - don't use jan if you're not actually sure you're referring to a jan!

the above note is a very strong personal opinion.

in practice, many people do still use jan for someone/anyone/everyone etc.