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Kokanu is a sister language to the minimalist constructed language Toki Pona. Toki Pona utilizes minimalism in the construction of its vocabulary and grammar in order to fulfill certain philosophical and artistic principles. A side effect of its minimalism, however, is that it is by far easier to learn than the vast majority of other languages, both natural and constructed.
For more than a century, people have been trying to construct a language for international use that is easier to learn than the natural languages that are used for inter-cultural communication such as English. The main reason for this has been that natural languages tend to be so full of irregularities and idiosyncrasies that they put those who know them natively at a major advantage over those who have to learn them as a second language, thereby not allowing inter-cultural communication to happen on a truly equal basis.
The creators of languages like Esperanto, Ido, Novial, Lingwa de Planeta, and Globasa, to name a few of the most well known, attempted to create languages that are much easier to learn than natural languages, and in most cases they succeeded, but most didn't quite succeed in getting those language to be used widely. Esperanto, the most successful by far, endures in a community of up to 2 million people around the world, all speaking to each other in a single common language that allows all of them to express themselves to a more or less equal capacity.
However, with the recent explosive success of Toki Pona, some people have wondered if perhaps an even more widespread and even more egalitarian language could be possible, repurposing the minimalist principles of Toki Pona from artistic expression to practical inter-cultural communication. Those people built the language Toki Ma, which over time has evolved into its current most optimal and stable form, Kokanu.
Kokanu has about 360 words, compared to Esperanto's thousands, and a much simpler and more flexible grammar. While it is not as minimalist as Toki Pona, it is designed to maximize Toki Pona's context-dependent system. Kokanu is designed such that most concepts will have to be expressed using several words, but concepts that would very often have to be used as a building block to express other common concepts are given their own words. Additionally, common concepts which would require too many words to express are given their own word, and common concepts which are impossible to express as collection of other concepts in a way that is faithful to the common cultural perception of them are given their own words.
A vocabulary created along these guidelines, combined with a flexible and fluidly recursive grammar, allows speakers to easily express any concept, no matter how complicated, when that concept is first introduced in their speech, and then refer back to that concept in more brief terms, having set up the context for the rest of their speech. This strategy allows the language to simultaneously be as easy to learn as possible and to be vastly expressive and efficient.
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Currently most detailed description of Kokanu grammar but with old vocabulary and many outdated concepts
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How To Contribute
So you want to add your translations? Please follow this guide to learn how.
1) Go to the Kokanu We One homepage
2) Create an Account or Login
If you create a new account, reach out to nin Jeka on Discord for getting the writer access role. Otherwise, just login here and you should be directed right back to the home page.
3) Hover Over Translations & Click New
4) Enter the Translation
The Title should be the English word (looking into adding more languages, currently only supporting English). The content should be two paragraphs (just two lines separated by hitting enter), the first paragraph is your Kokanu translation in Latin script, the second in the Likanu script.
Select each word by double clicking the text and use the CMS Content button, then Article. Now search for the word and click on the title to link it.
5) Add Your Field Selections
Click on the Fields tab and indicate what kind of translation and what part of speech the English word is.
6) Enter publishing details
Click on the Publishing tab, much of this actually doesn't need to be changed but you can add notes or version details. If you have the right access level, you can choose to publish or unpublish these translation articles.
Most importantly, you can tag the words that were used, doing this step hooks these translations together and allows users to navigate between translations and Kokanu words with wild abandon.
7) Save your work
You did it! If you have publisher access, you should be able to see your translation but if you are a new writer, please hang tight while publishers review your work. Thanks for participating in the creation of this English-Kokanu dictionary!
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How To Read Likanu
Likanu is an abugida, meaning that each consonant character always expresses a vowel, and that vowel can be modified with diacritics. The base characters all have an inherent /a/ vowel.
ɞ /ma/ | ɕ /wa/ | ɂ /ja/ |
To express other vowels, a diacritic is placed to the side of the character.
ɞı /mi/ | ɞȷ /me/ | ɞſ /mu/ | ɞʃ /mo/ |
An accent means that syllable ends in a nasal, often referred to as coda -n. The accent goes directly over the consonant character.
ɞ̄ /man/ | ʌ̄ȷ /ten/ | ɞ̄ſ /mun/ |
Although the vowel diacritic is placed adjacent to the consonant character, almost like an alphabetical letter, this is not an alphabet like you may be used to. A vowel diacritic cannot be used on its own, it can only be used to modify the vowel of a consonant character. For words that begin with a vowel sound, the null consonant character ⟨o⟩ must be used and then a vowel diacritic can modify it.
oʌʃ /ato/ | oıɕȷ /iwe/ |
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Up-to-date dictionary