There are fourteen letters in the Toki Pona alphabet: nine
consonants (j k l m n p s t w) and five vowels (a e i o u).
# Consonants #
Except for j, all the consonants are pronounced as they are
in English.
letter pronounced as in
---------------------------
k kill
l let
m met
n net
p pit
s sink
t too
w wet
j yet
As you may have noticed, Toki Pona's j isn't pronounced like
English's j. Instead, always pronounce it like the letter y
in English. Some languages (e.g., German and Esperanto) also
pronounce j this way, but if you've never studied such
languages, be careful to pronounce it right. If you see j,
pretend it's y.
# Vowels #
In English, vowels are pronounced many different ways
depending on the word. In Toki Pona, though, the vowels are
all regular and never change pronunciation.
If you're familiar with Spanish, Italian, or Esperanto,
you'll recognize that Toki Pona's vowels are the same as in
those languages. Study this chart:
letter pronounced as in
---------------------------
a father
e met
i peel
o more
u food
# More Advanced Stuff #
As long as you've mastered the above material, you know
everything you need to continue learning basic Toki Pona. If
learning the alphabet and pronunciation was easy for you and
if you feel confident, go ahead and read the rest of this
lesson now. However, if you had a difficult time with the
above material, just focus on it for now, and return to
finish this lesson at a later time. (The information is
still important if you hope to master Toki Pona, so come
back to it later.)
There are a few more things to learn about Toki Pona
pronunciation and style:
Official Toki Pona words (i.e., the 120 words published in
Sonja Lang's book, Toki Pona: The Language of Good) are
never capitalized. They are lowercase even at the beginning
of a sentence!
Capitalize unofficial words (i.e., the names of people,
places, religions, etc.) A few examples:
jan Susan li pona. = Susan is good. (Susan, a person's
name, is the only word capitalized in this sentence.)
ma Elopa li suli. = Europe is big. (Europe isn't one of
Toki Pona's 120 official words, so it's capitalized.)
Because Toki Pona has so few consonants, you have some
flexibility with pronouncing them. In addition to the
pronunciations you learned above, here's a quick list of
some of the alternate pronunciations that certain consonants
can have:
letter pronounced as in
---------------------------
p bit
t dog
k garden
s zoo
Toki Pona's syllables all follow a pattern: consonant +
vowel + optional n. If a syllable is at the beginning of a
word, the consonant is optional. (For example, ali and unpa
don't begin with consonants.) The optional n is forbidden if
the next syllable begins with m or n. Four combinations are
forbidden due to difficulty hearing and/or saying them;
these are: ji, ti, wo, and wu.
Accent is always on the first syllable.
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Source: Public domain lessons by Bryant Knight, 2015
