https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY3Qe_b9ufI Right… let me start by saying that I feel very much in the company of like-minded individuals here. I watched this video in full before I even started writing this article (and this isn’t the first RobWords YouTube video I’ve watched).
That said, I had never heard of the term “conlang” until now. It’s short for “constructed language”. But for those hoping for an earnest introduction to Toki Pona on my part at this point: it’s basically what has been called a “philosophical artistic constructed language” created by Sonja Lang (herself a linguist and translator just like me, interestingly enough). Now, from the start, I couldn’t help thinking that this is a woman who gives herself too much credit for what she does. In any case, if nothing else, Toki Pona is a certainly a language which saves on vocabulary, and for that reason it certainly is ambiguous – I found it amusing to hear it described as “the language with the most speakers per word”. Those determined to use it will likely soon find themselves asking “How to get by with so few words to choose from?” To say nothing of the fact that it doesn’t differentiate one tense from another.
Still, I’ve taken the time to learn at least one or two of the basic ways of it, like its system for numbers. Nevertheless, a single word can all too often mean too many different things. If the content of this video is to be taken seriously, well, I personally am astonished as to how committed some people are to this “language”. I mean, an annual Toki Pona writing competition? I am more inclined to argue that it is a “linguistic toy” (I couldn’t have put it better myself) than to discuss the possibility that there is some kind of “philosophical reason” as to why people get into it.
It is stated in this video that “perhaps simplifying language can help you simplify your thoughts” – but I’m not convinced that simplification of one’s own thoughts is what we always need by a long stretch. In truth, I’ve never come across anything which has left me with such a motivation to broaden my vocabulary and catch up with the meanings of words that I can only “half-remember” (in foreign languages and my mother tongue alike). So in that sense, in the real world and the grand scheme of things, maybe Toki Pona really is an instrument that can school us into – for what it’s worth – listening better.