Toki Pona, Esperanto and German, wanderlusting Yorùbá

[IronMike]

Se Esperanto estas maratono, do la tokipona estas sprinto. Por lerni Esperanton, oni bezonas nur multan tempon; oni ne devas pensi multe se oni parolas vesteŭropana(j)n lingvo(j)n. Oni nur bezonas tri monatojn, seks monatojn, aŭ eble unu jaron. Oni bezonas nur unu aŭ du semanojn por lerni la tokiponan, sed oni devas pensi multege en tio kurta tempo. Kaj oni devas pensi multi por paroli aŭ skrivi en la tokiponan.

Your English, German and perhaps Toki Pona is creeping into your Eo! (Hope you don't mind...meant simply to help...)

[Deinonysus]

Well, it was about a riddle, rather than a joke. And apart from (maybe) the backwards speech spoiler, I personally didn't see any over-explanation either. It was simply meant to be an example of a riddle that can be solved after reading some hints. Being mentioned for pointing out that unlike in cases like these, there are no spoilers in toki pona.

Okay, fair enough.

And it wasn't about numbers.

Musical Trigger / Songs in the Key of Lock: A door has three possible keys, labelled "A," "C," and "D." The D key causes two blades to fly at Batman and Robin. When Batman tries to use the A key, Robin stops him, saying there will be three blades—the Key of A and the Key of D have three and two sharps, respectively. The correct answer is the Key of C, which has no sharps. They get through the puzzle.

Don't forget that I'm only using the most used ten hundred words (at least in this way of talking). I can't use the letter names of the keys because the letters are not in the ten hundred most used words, so I have to just say which number letter it is. The keys that are named after letter one, letter letter four, letter five, and letter seven have raised notes, so they work. But the key named after letter six doesn't work, because that also doesn't have any raised notes. It has one note that is brought down instead.

Se Esperanto estas maratono, do la tokipona estas sprinto. Por lerni Esperanton, oni bezonas nur multan tempon; oni ne devas pensi multe se oni parolas vesteŭropana(j)n lingvo(j)n. Oni nur bezonas tri monatojn, seks monatojn, aŭ eble unu jaron. Oni bezonas nur unu aŭ du semanojn por lerni la tokiponan, sed oni devas pensi multege en tio kurta tempo. Kaj oni devas pensi multi por paroli aŭ skrivi en la tokiponan.

Your English, German and perhaps Toki Pona is creeping into your Eo! (Hope you don't mind...meant simply to help...)

Dankon! Hodiaŭ mi eklernas, ke oni diras "Okcidenta Eŭropo". "Multi" estis tajperaro! Sed mi forgesis, kiel oni skribas "skribi".

Mi ne komprenas, kiel mi devus pli bone skribi: "Oni nur bezonas tri monatojn, seks monatojn, aŭ eble unu jaron. Oni bezonas nur unu aŭ du semanojn por lerni la tokiponan, sed oni devas pensi multege en tio kurta tempo." Ĉu vi povus helpi?

Mi ne povus skribi tion kun nur mil vortoj de la angla, do mi devus skribi en malbona Esperanto.

[IronMike]

Se Esperanto estas maratono, do la tokipona estas sprinto. Por lerni Esperanton, oni bezonas nur multan tempon; oni ne devas pensi multe se oni parolas vesteŭropana(j)n lingvo(j)n. Oni nur bezonas tri monatojn, seks monatojn, aŭ eble unu jaron. Oni bezonas nur unu aŭ du semanojn por lerni la tokiponan, sed oni devas pensi multege en tio kurta tempo. Kaj oni devas pensi multi por paroli aŭ skrivi en la tokiponan.

Your English, German and perhaps Toki Pona is creeping into your Eo! (Hope you don't mind...meant simply to help...)

Dankon! Hodiaŭ mi eklernas, ke oni diras "Okcidenta Eŭropo". "Multi" estis tajperaro! Sed mi forgesis, kiel oni skribas "skribi".

Mi ne komprenas, kiel mi devus pli bone skribi: "Oni nur bezonas tri monatojn, seks monatojn, aŭ eble unu jaron. Oni bezonas nur unu aŭ du semanojn por lerni la tokiponan, sed oni devas pensi multege en tio kurta tempo." Ĉu vi povus helpi?

Mi ne povus skribi tion kun nur mil vortoj de la angla, do mi devus skribi en malbona Esperanto.

Mi skribus:
Oni nur bezonas tri monatojn, ses monaton, aŭ eble unu jaron. Oni bezonas nur unu aŭ du semanojn por lerni la tokiponan, sed oni devas pensi multege en tiu* kurta tempo.

*or tia?

[Deinonysus]

Se Esperanto estas maratono, do la tokipona estas sprinto. Por lerni Esperanton, oni bezonas nur multan tempon; oni ne devas pensi multe se oni parolas vesteŭropana(j)n lingvo(j)n. Oni nur bezonas tri monatojn, seks monatojn, aŭ eble unu jaron. Oni bezonas nur unu aŭ du semanojn por lerni la tokiponan, sed oni devas pensi multege en tio kurta tempo. Kaj oni devas pensi multi por paroli aŭ skrivi en la tokiponan.

Your English, German and perhaps Toki Pona is creeping into your Eo! (Hope you don't mind...meant simply to help...)

Dankon! Hodiaŭ mi eklernas, ke oni diras "Okcidenta Eŭropo". "Multi" estis tajperaro! Sed mi forgesis, kiel oni skribas "skribi".

Mi ne komprenas, kiel mi devus pli bone skribi: "Oni nur bezonas tri monatojn, seks monatojn, aŭ eble unu jaron. Oni bezonas nur unu aŭ du semanojn por lerni la tokiponan, sed oni devas pensi multege en tio kurta tempo." Ĉu vi povus helpi?

Mi ne povus skribi tion kun nur mil vortoj de la angla, do mi devus skribi en malbona Esperanto.

Mi skribus:
Oni nur bezonas tri monatojn, ses monaton, aŭ eble unu jaron. Oni bezonas nur unu aŭ du semanojn por lerni la tokiponan, sed oni devas pensi multege en tiu* kurta tempo.

*or tia?

Ah, dankon!

Nun mi vidas, ke "seks" estas io alia en Esperanto!

[Deinonysus]

The last few days have been busy, and I haven't been able to work much on the "Good/Simple Talk". But I have been able to work a lot on the "Doctor Who Hopes Talk", using the computer thing with a name sounds like it means "Two ways of talking".

It's hard not to want to start other ways of talking. I would love to learn a way of talking where how high or low you talk changes what words mean. There is a way of talking that comes from the bottom-left of the three big parts of the old world, that does this. Many of the other ways of talking in its family also do this, but it is the most used way of talking in its family (that is, by people who learned it when they were babies; there is one other way of talking in this family with more people who speak it, but most of them learned it after they were no longer babies). It comes from the land in its part of the world with the most people living in it. The great thing about this way of talking, is that when they write, they show how high or low you need to talk. You can speak high, low, or in the middle.

But I should not start learning this way of talking right now. There are other ways of talking that I must learn first. But maybe someday I will spend some time on it.

[Deinonysus]

Not much has changed since the last time I wrote. I am still going forward well in "Doctor Who Hopes" on the green flying animal computer class. I should be done within a month or so. Then I can focus more on the other way of talking (that is a sister to my way of talking) that I'm learning in a class.

I should also be done with "Simple/Good Talk" within a couple of weeks. I have not gone forward in the book for a while, but I have gone over what I already know. I have already finished half of the book-parts.

I also want to start another way of talking, which my family speaks, and which was dead for a few tens of hundreds of years before coming back to life, and which came from the place where the three big parts of the old world meet, and which a very important book about a god was written in. I keep wanting to learn other ways of talking instead of this, but I think I will have a lot of chances to speak it (and I want my daughter to have a chance to speak it too when she arrives in the world soon) and it has a very interesting place in the world's story.

I have also spent some time watching short computer movies about the way of talking I mentioned earlier, from the bottom-left part of the three big parts of the old world. I would love to spend more time on it, but if I keep starting new ways of talking before I am finished with the others I'm working on, I'll never go forward.

[Deinonysus]

Ways of talking that were made by one person
I am letting myself use the names of lands and ways of talking to my Simple English writing. Writing in Simple English is very good training for Toki Pona, but it's too annoying to have to write about ways of talking without naming them, when even Toki Pona allows you to use them. And in fact, the Toki Pona book has the names of every land in the world; the names are changed to work with Toki Pona's very small number of sounds.

My learning is slow but sure in Esperanto and Toki Pona. I have finished almost a third of "Two ways of talking". I just bought a book of Esperanto short stories called Ne ekzistas verdaj steloj.

I'm also just over half-way through the Toki Pona book. It's short but as I've been saying, you really need to think a lot! I especially like the word-picture writing (called sitelen pona).

Ways of talking that were not made by one person
Speaking of word-picture writing, I have been reading a great book about how the people of today learned to read the picture writing of the Maya. I would love to learn one or two Maya ways of talking and learn to read the picture-writing of the old Maya lands.

The two most spoken Maya ways of talking are:

• K'iche': Spoken in Guatemala, it is the most spoken Maya way of talking. A well-known book about how the gods made the world was written in this way of writing, not the old Maya picture writing.
• Yucatec Maya: Spoken in Mexico, in the part of the land above Guatemala and Belize that sticks out into the water, where a large rock fell from above the sky and killed the very big animals a long time before there were people. Although most Maya picture-writing was written in Ch'olti' (which is not spoken any more), there was also some picture writing in Yucatec Maya. Many of the biggest Maya City-States were in this part of the world. Most of the Maya's paper books were burned when the people from across the water took over, so most of the picture writing that's left is written on rock, but there are four books that made it, and three of these are written in Yucatec Maya. Unlike K'iche' and most other Maya ways of talking, Yucatec Maya uses tones.

I should probably learn Spanish before trying to learn these ways of talking. But it's hard to hold back!

I have also been looking at two ways of talking in the Niger-Congo family:

• Yorùbá: This is probably the most spoken Niger-Congo way of talking. It is spoken in Nigeria. Igbo (also spoken in Nigeria) is close, and so are some other ways of talking. I have not really spent much time learning it, but I have been watching some computer movies about it. I think it would make a very good first way of talking with tones. It is different from some other ways of talking with tones, like Mandarin or Vietnamese, because how you change the tone (going up, going down, or staying the same) does not matter; the only thing that matters in Yorùbá is whether the tone is high, low, or in the middle. This also matters in Mandarin and Vietnames, but you need to pay attention to the way the tones move as well, so it could be easy to speak moving the tone the right way, but not in the right part of your voice. And the great thing is that Yorùbá is often written with tones, which makes it easier to remember.
• Xhosa: This is one of my favorite ways of talking and there isn't much to say about it that I haven't already said. It also has tones, but some people say it's more like in Swedish, Norwegian, and Japanese, and doesn't use true tones. The tones are not usually written.

[IronMike]

Ways of talking that were not made by one person
Speaking of word-picture writing, I have been reading a great book about how the people of today learned to read the picture writing of the Maya. I would love to learn one or two Maya ways of talking and learn to read the picture-writing of the old Maya lands.

The two most spoken Maya ways of talking are:

• K'iche': Spoken in Guatemala, it is the most spoken Maya way of talking. A well-known book about how the gods made the world was written in this way of writing, not the old Maya picture writing.
• Yucatec Maya: Spoken in Mexico, in the part of the land above Guatemala and Belize that sticks out into the water, where a large rock fell from above the sky and killed the very big animals a long time before there were people. Although most Maya picture-writing was written in Ch'olti' (which is not spoken any more), there was also some picture writing in Yucatec Maya. Many of the biggest Maya City-States were in this part of the world. Most of the Maya's paper books were burned when the people from across the water took over, so most of the picture writing that's left is written on rock, but there are four books that made it, and three of these are written in Yucatec Maya. Unlike K'iche' and most other Maya ways of talking, Yucatec Maya uses tones.

I should probably learn Spanish before trying to learn these ways of talking. But it's hard to hold back!

I'm with ya! I so badly want to learn Nahuatl, and I know there are some English-medium books out there ($$$!), but there are most probably many more resources out there in Spanish, and I'm just not in the Spanish-learning mood now (ever?).

[Deinonysus]

Conlangs and German
Well, writing in Simple English was an interesting exercise in doing a lot with a small vocabulary, and it was an enlightening complement to Toki Pona, but it's become more annoying than helpful, so I'm dropping it.

Progress in Esperanto and German is slow and steady, the same as usual.

Yorùbá
As I said, I've been very interested in Yorùbá lately. I finally broke down and started going through FSI Yorùbá for the last couple of days. It's a bit old (there's no exact date but it's signed by the director of the FSI from the early to mid 70s), but it's very well structured. The thing I like the most is that it has an intensive set of tone drills at almost the very beginning of the course. This matches my motivation for learning Yorùbá very well. As a plus, the narrator has one of the most regal, soothing voices that I have ever heard. I would honestly listen to him reading a phone book.

There is also a promising free textbook called Yorùbá Yé Mi available from the University of Texas, but I think I'll just stick with FSI for now because of its early emphasis on tones.

I've also been watching the YouTube Channel Yorùbá Lessons with Adérónké̩, which has a large number of long, high-quality lessons.

English
I also have a book coming on Early Modern English. I really wish we still had some of its features, like a t-v distinction, the -eth suffix in third person singular, and a four-way system of answering binary questions (yes and no to answer negative questions, yea and nay to answer positive questions), and less do-support. I'm already a big fan of Shakespeare I would love to be able to read his works and the King James Bible more fluently.

[IronMike]

I also have a book coming on Early Modern English. I really wish we still had some of its features, like a t-v distinction, the -eth suffix in third person singular, and a four-way system of answering binary questions (yes and no to answer negative questions, yea and nay to answer positive questions), and less do-support. I'm already a big fan of Shakespeare I would love to be able to read his works and the King James Bible more fluently.

I have a sequence of books on Old English and Middle English and one of these damn days I'm gonna find someone to host an OE study group.