Roundtable with Sonja Lang: "Toki Pona: From Personal Art Project to Small World Language”
Date and time: Monday, April 8, 4:00 to 6:00 pm
Place: The Center for British and Irish Studies Room (5th floor, Norlin Library)
Sponsors: Department of Linguistics and the Center for Humanities and the Arts
Toki Pona: From Personal Art Project to Small World Language
In this roundtable discussion, after an introduction byjanLakuse, Sonja Lang will share her experiences and knowledge of the Toki Pona language by answering questions from a roundtable of students and members of the audience. Toki Pona is a minimalist constructed language with only about 120 to 139 words. One of the fastest growing constructed languages in the world, it was designed by Sonja Lang to simplify her way of thinking. One of Toki Pona's mainprinciples is joy. It features silly words, room for creative expression, and ambiguity. Even its writing system is made up of cute pictograms. Since its initial creation, Toki Pona has evolved into a living language, adopting several new words, grammar features, and a growing community of speakers. Today, there are thousands of Toki Pona speakers around the world.
The speakers:
Sonja Lang(jan Sonja) is the inventor of the Toki Pona language. She is the author and publisher ofToki Pona: The Language of Good,Toki Pona Dictionary, andThe Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Toki Pona edition). She is a self-taught polyglot. Website:
Chelsea Raacz(jan Lakuse) is a community organizer and proficient speaker of both Toki Pona and Luka Pona Sign Language. They teach, organize the annual Toki Pona writing competition and help to moderate the largest Toki Pona Discord server, which has over 13,000 members.
