2026-04-01 - Toki Pona Grocery List

Recently i discovered Toki Pona [1] in gopherspace. Reading about it made me smile. It's a minimal conlang. The minimal design reminds me of the scheme programming language. It also brought to mind ASL.

Here is an example grocery list, first in English, then in Toki Pona, and finally translated back to literal English.

English:

• coffee
• milk
• pears
• blueberries
• scallions
• jalapenos
• cilantro
• celery
• bread
• oats
• rice
• salsa
• broth

Toki Pona:

• telo sewi wawa
• telo mama soweli
• kili laso
• kili laso
• kili laso
• kili laso
• kili laso
• kili laso
• pan
• pan
• pan
• moku telo
• moku telo

Literal English:

• liquid, dark [and] strong
• liquid [from] parent animal
• fruit or vegetable, blue or green
• fruit or vegetable, blue or green
• fruit or vegetable, blue or green
• fruit or vegetable, blue or green
• fruit or vegetable, blue or green
• fruit or vegetable, blue or green
• bread or grains
• bread or grains
• bread or grains
• food, liquid
• food, liquid

It's so simple!

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