tk pon

I’ve made quite a few toki pona abbreviation systems. this one, however, I think is very elegant.

a major (seemingly unavoidable) issue with abbreviation systems is that they’re only helpful once you know the system. for a toki pona abbreviation system, you need to learn either how all the words are written or at least how all the syllables are written. this is a lot of work, both for the writer and for the reader. it would be nice to be able to avoid this issue, wouldn’t it?

the pitch

this is an abbreviation system where:

1. it is not necessary to memorize how any individual words or syllables are written to write using this system. all you need to remember are a few simple rules (outlined below).

2. to read in this system, you do not need to know literally anything at all about how it works! anyone who can read toki pona can read text abbreviated using tk pon, guaranteed!

sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? well, if you happen to be able to read toki pona, here’s a bit of sample text, just as a proof of concept:

jn li tk e ni: ni li ma mj
sina ken ala at e sina

o son e ni: sina ken
kama jn pi wi sina a
tw sina li pon mte
sj sina li pon lkn

(if you can’t read toki pona, then like. just trust me, this is extremely intuitive.)

the rules

so, how does it work? it’s very simple!

• a potential abbreviation of a given toki pona word is a sequence of letters that satisfies the following:

  • it is formed exclusively by deleting zero or more letters from the word being abbreviated; you cannot insert or rearrange letters

    • for example: toki may be abbreviated to “tki”, but NOT “tik” or “tkk”

  • the first letter is not deleted; the first letter of the abbreviation is the same as the first letter of the word being abbreviated

    • for example: toki cannot be abbreviated to “oki”

  • it is not spelled the same as a different toki pona word from the one being abbreviated

    • for example: kalama cannot be abbreviated to “kala”, since the word kala exists (abbreviating the word kala itself to “kala”, however, is acceptable)

    • what counts as a “toki pona word” is partially a matter of personal opinion, so this rule only applies if it’s spelled the same as a word that you (the writer) personally use. you do not need to be concerned with accidentally conflicting with a rare nimi sin that you aren’t familiar with.

  • there are no sequences of consecutive vowel letters

    • for example, toki cannot be abbreviated to “toi”

• a proper abbreviation of a given toki pona word is a potential abbreviation that applies to one and only one toki pona word.

  • for example, “kma” is a potential abbreviation for both kama and kalama, and as such it’s not a proper abbreviation for either word.

  • as before, you only need to avoid these conflicts for words that you personally use. for example, the abbreviation “kj” is improper if you use the both of the words kijetesantakalu and kulijo, but if you only use one of these two words then it unambiguously refers to that one.

…okay I know this looks like a lot but that’s just because I’m describing it in extremely precise detail. here’s the “easy version”. an abbreviation in this system must satisfy all of these rules:

• it’s formed by removing some letters from the word and doing nothing else

• the first letter is the same as the word

• you can’t have two vowels in a row

• it unambiguously applies to one and only one toki pona word (within whatever set of toki pona words you personally use)

and, to be clear, a word can have multiple separate abbreviations in this system! for example, the word kepeken can be abbreviated as “kep”, “kpe”, “kpk”, “kpn”, “kke”, or “kkn”. however, this isn’t really an issue. none of a word’s proper abbreviations can be ambiguous (except in cases where people disagree about what words count as “toki pona words”, but that can be resolved through context), and no memorization is necessary.

cheat sheet

but, okay, let’s say you want to use this system without needing to derive the abbreviations by hand every time. no problem! here’s a complete list of minimal-length proper abbreviations for all nimi ku suli!