<p> mama - parent, ancestor; creator, originator; caretaker, sustainer</p>
<p> ma - earth, land; outdoors, world; country, territory; soil</p>
<p> nimi - name, word</p>
<p> lete - cold, cool; uncooked, raw</p>
<p> seli - fire; cooking element, chemical reaction, heat source</p>
<p> len - cloth, clothing, fabric, textile; cover, layer of privacy</p>
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<h2class="title box-title">lesson</h2>
<h3class="title box-title sub-title">~ names</h3>
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<p>in toki pona, proper names are treated as adjectives, with a capitalized first letter. this means that you have to pick a word which describes what the thing is, and then modify that word with the name.</p>
<p>names in toki pona are "tokiponized," which means fitting the name into toki pona phonotactics. the general guidelines to tokiponization are the following:</p>
<ul>
<li>use the local name and pronounciation</li>
<li>syllables consist of a consonant, then a vowel, then an optional n. the first consonant may be omitted.</li>
<li>d->t, b->p, r->w/l/k</li>
<ul><li>tapped or trilled r becomes l</li><li>french/german r turns to k</li><li>english r turns to w</li></ul>
<li>preserving syllable count is more important than preserving consonants</li>
<li>wu, wo, ji, and ti are illegal</li>
<ul><li>wu becomes u, wo becomes o, ji becomes i, and ti becomes si</li></ul>
<li>if you're tokiponizing your own name - don't be scared to break a rule or two if the resulting name makes you happier! it's your name and you can do whatever you want with it</li>
</ul>
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<h3class="title box-title sub-title">~ note about inclusivity</h3>
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<p>people use lots of different headnouns in toki pona, depending on what word(s) they identify with more. for example, i use soweli as my headnoun!</p>
<p>keep this in mind when speaking toki pona! <br>
for example, since not everyone is a jan, it doesn't make sense to translate "everyone" as "jan ale", instead you should translate it as something like "ijo ale" or just "ale"</p>
<p>basically - don't use jan if you're not actually sure you're referring to a jan!</p>
<p>my name, tess, turns into <spanclass=sentence>soweli Tesa</span>!<br>
technically, my name should be <spanclass=sentence>Te</span>, but the s in my name felt important to include, so it's <spanclass=sentence>Tesa</span> instead!</p>
<p>my cat, tiara, is soweli Sijala!<br>
the r in her name turns into an l because i tap my r's, and the ti turns into si.</p>
<p>a person named Elizabeth could be <spanclass=sentence>jan Elisape</span></p>
