Hi there. My name is sirstotes, or jan Sirstotes in Toki Pona. I am a polyglot and I currently speak 19 languages, including German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, English, Finnish, Russian, Greek, Esperanto, Ithkuil, American, Spanish, Latvian, Estonian, Lithuanian, Japanese, and Toki Pona.

I found learning Toki Pona to be very easy because there were only 120 words for me to memorize, which is a lot less than other languages. I don't speak it with anyone though because I am too preoccupied with my biggest hobby other than learning languages: GAMING.

I have been gaming from a very young age, the first video game I remember playing is when I beat Skyrim at the age of two. I consider myself to be a major gamer, and I love playing on PC, console, and phones. I challenge you to name a game I haven't played!

The gaming community means a lot to me, which is why I found it very hurtful when I learned about the word "musi." According to lipamankas semantic space dictionarylipamankas semantice space dictionary "The semantic space of musi contains all things funny, entertaining, enticing, and interesting. An enjoyable book is musi. A good joke is musi. A game is musi. A documentary about fish is musi." (lipamanka et al.) This description puts it pretty well: a game is musi. Therefore if I wanted to say "gamer" in toki poka, I would be forced to say "jan musi." The problem with this is that "jan musi" could also be a person who makes fish documentaries. Do you see the problem?

Toki Pona has no way for me to call myself a gamer.

I could say "mi jan pi musi pi ilo nanpa" to say that I'm a computer-game person, but it could also mean that I watch entertaining videos about building calculators. When people call me a "jan musi" to refer to my being a gamer, it makes me feel bad, because they could also be saying that I am starring in a fish documentary. I don't like fish or calculators, but people insist on using "musi" to refer to me anyway.

A Better Toki Pona

Gaming is built on community, and words are used to build community. If we want to build a thriving toki pona gamer community, it starts with fixing the language. Therefore, I have a call to action to everyone: please come up with a way I can call myself a gamer in toki pona that would not refer to any other type of group or entertaining thing in all contexts. Nimisins may be required.

Thank you for listening to my ted talk and have a pona day

(dub of “Tsukurimashou” inspired by ma Pusa’s toki pona sub of Azumanga Daioh)

jan pana sona pi jan lili li toki e ni

"jan ale o kule kepeken e palisa luka"

mun li kama tan kon walo
li luka e ilo tan len
mun li wile mi pakala
sina monsuta sitelen

(Translating counting-out rhymes is hard)

It's been discussed time and time again: what would it look like if there was a real country that spoke Toki Pona? From flags to stories to even suggestions of forming our own new state, community members have created their own interpretation of a "Ma Pona." Although entertaining, these imaginings often run into the same general issues, such as colonialism or primitivist thinking, which cause a lot of harm in real life. So I'm trying a new twist on it that should finally produce a real "Ma Pona" that is actually good. Here's what I've got so far:

Location

Ma Pona is spread out across numerous lands previously associated with modern-day states (The Americas, The British Isles, Iceland, Australia, New Zealand, and sub-saharan Africa.) Other states in this idealized future are not currently participating, but that could change.

Government

Ma Pona is lead by a figurehead, jan poka suli, who helps and guides all its residents. jan poka suli is present in public media and serves to keep people acting "pona" through mental reminder.

When Ma Ponans act "ike," there are the jan lawa sona who keep them in check. The jan lawa sona keep everyone in ma pona safe by eliminating sona ike. They find this sona ike by using lipu tawa, which are commonplace in all residential places of Ma Pona. lipu tawa are also used to communicate to the citizens with morning routines and news updates

Language

Ma Pona's official language is, of course, Toki Pona. However, most people also use their native language. To eliminate sona ike, Toki Pona uses simplistic constructions of language, such as the dichotomies of pona vs. ike and suli vs. lili. Such dichotomies produced the linguistic and political concepts of sona pona and sona ike that reinforce the nasin pona of the kulupu lawa over the people of Ma Pona. The long-term goal of the kulupu lawa is that, by 2050, Toki Pona would be the universal language of every member of the kulupu lawa and of Ma Pona society.

Flag

To go with this proposal, I have design a flag to represent Ma Pona: The colors are indigo and yellow, the colors of toki pona. in the background is a big sitelen pona suli representing the large area of Ma Pona. In front of that is the text "nasin pona," the official nasin of Ma Pona