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Most readers may not know that there exist many languages that are man-made, which are normally known as constructed languages.
Perhaps a few may have heard about Esperanto, the international auxiliary language created by Zamenhof in 1887, but it is unlikely that many may have heard about Toki Pona.
Toki Pona with its simplicity goes against everything our mainstream society preaches: to be happy, or rather to be “someone,” we need to have more and more and more. More of everything: more money, more fun, more food, more possessions, and even more words! Yes, more words.
For our society, the more complicated, the better. Just look at how complicated life is becoming! Information technology promised to make our life easier, but the opposite has happened. Yes, perhaps we can do more things now while sitting comfortably in our homes (which is bad for our health, by the way), but other things are taking up our time and our mind.
As an academic, for example, until 15 years ago, when I wanted to submit an article for publication in an academic journal, I would just send an email attaching my article, that was it, 10 minutes of work. Nowadays, online submission takes a much longer time, if internet works well and the system is user-friendly enough. Some time ago, an academic article of mine was rejected because it was “only” 5,000 words long. Yes, a shortish article perhaps, but considering its subject matter, it was extensive and complete. The journal told me that I should add an extra 3,000 words or so in order for it to be considered! Amazing, but perfectly in line with how our society is evolving, a greedy society that wants more and more, even as far as words are concerned!
In Orwell’s 1984, the Big Brother would erase words to prevent people from using them and even thinking them, but now the strategy has changed—people are being controlled by cluttering their minds, submerging them in a sea of images and words.
This increasing complexity of life and language is an important part of modernity and the widespread economic system we are a part of. Leading a simple life with few material possessions is against the tenets of our consumeristic and polluting society. It is against its idea that to increase production and profits people and governments need to consume more, to buy more, and this includes any possible good, from computers to weapons: “From the market’s perspective, […] only by nurturing practically every kind of undifferentiated yearnings and desire — and then transmuting them into the urge to consume — can the economy stay on an upward course.” (Gross 2009, 53)
From the material point of view, the worst enemies of this economy may be Theravada Buddhist monks and Indian sadhus who don’t own anything, or some of the original hippies who went to live basic lives in rural communes. From the linguistic point of view, perhaps the worst enemies of consumer capitalism may be Tokiponists!
But what is Toki Pona exactly? It is a minimalist language created by Canadian Sonja Lang in 1991. With all the natural languages in the world (about 7,000 according to experts) why on earth should someone create a language anew, some may wonder. Well, according to its creator and many of its users (mostly on the Internet), such a simple language may help to simplify our thoughts.
As a young woman, Sonja Lang suffered from depression, so based on her vast linguistic knowledge she invented a new language, which was so simple that using it helped her to focus and rein in mulling over her thoughts: “Training your mind to think in Toki Pona can lead to deeper insights. If many of life’s problems are created by our excess thoughts, then Toki Pona filters out the noise and points to the centre of things. […] Toki pona promotes mindfulness. Become fully aware of the present moment.” (Lang 2014, 12)
But what is meant by “simple” here? Well, Toki Pona doesn’t have any verb tenses, no articles, no plural forms, no relative pronouns. But what is quite amazing is that it only has around 140 words! How can you communicate with only 140 words? Well, in two ways. First of all, any word can work as any part of the discourse—they can be nouns, adjectives, adverbs, verbs, and some even prepositions according to the position they have in the sentence.
For example, the word “seli” may mean “fire” as a noun, “hot” as an adjective, “heat” or “cook” as a verb, or “heatingly” as an adverb. Secondly, one can combine these words and create thousands more. For example, “coffee” can be expressed as “telo seli pimeja” (lit. hot black liquid), “car” as “tomo tawa” (the moving room), “friend” as “jan pona” (good person).
It is just amazing how much creativity this language can engender, but above all, it really forces you to think simply. Complicated sentences must be simplified. For example a sentence like: “Toki Pona is a creative language that can help simplifying thought,” may be translated as: “toki pona li ken pana e pona ni: jan li ken pali e nimi sin kepeken nimi pi toki pona. ona li ken pona e pilin jan” (literally: Toki Pona can give this good thing: people can make new words using/with Toki Pona words. It can improve/simplify people’s thoughts/feelings). Incidentally, capital letters are not used at the beginning of a sentence in Toki Pona, and only nine consonants and five vowels are used.
Learning such a simple language may help unclutter our mind, fighting in some way against the proliferation of useless words and convoluted long passages. This may perhaps also help to create a more humane, simpler, and less greedy society.
References:
Gross, David. 2009. The past in ruins. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.
Lang, Sonja. 2014. Toki Pona: The language of good. San Bernardino.
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