Preface (A Quick Introduction to Sitelen Pona)

Toki pona has two main writing systems; the Latin alphabet (like we use in English) and sitelen pona. Sitelen pona is a logographic writing system. In English, we have to write each letter/sound that makes up a word, but using logograms we only have one symbol for one whole word. Since toki pona has so few words, remembering all the symbols is pretty easy.

One fun thing you can do when writing with sitelen pona is putting two symbols together to make a compound word. For example, pilin ike (lit: “feeling bad"), can be written with the symbol for “ike” inside or on top of the symbol for “pilin”.

One day, while practicing writing in sitelen pona, I noticed that the symbol for loje walo (pink, lit: “whiteish red” or “light red”) kind of looked like a tiny person with their arms stretched out. By adding the symbol for tawa (move, go, motion) below that, I could even give them little legs!

I was inspired to write a little story about this, so I did. The story isn’t anything fancy, but I still think it’s worth sharing. It was originally written in toki pona, but I’ve translated it into English here so that people who don’t speak toki pona can still understand.

click here to see in toki pona. o kepeken e ni la sina lukin e ni lon toki pona.

The story of Lowata the doodle

A short story by Sawyer.

One day, there was a little pink doodle, who lived inside a piece of paper. It was the toki pona symbol for loje walo (lit "whiteish red", or pink), so it named itself Lowa the doodle.

Lowa wasn't like the other doodles. Lowa had many hopes and dreams.

Bellow I drew a picture of Lowa saying alkfalksdjfasf. which means "My name is Lowa (the doodle)" [img alt="???"]

For a long time, Lowa stayed in one place. It didn't have any legs! Lowa wished it had a way to move. It thought to itself; "the world is so big, but I'm stuck here! I could see so many new things if I could go to differant places!".

One day, this all changed. Lowa found a strange and mysterious tool!

toki musi pi stelen Lowata (kipisi nanpa wan)

toki musi lili tan jan Soja

tenpo suno wan la, sitelen lili li lon insa e lipu. ona li sitelen pona pi loje walo la, nimi ona li sitelen Lowa.

(lon anpa ni la, mi sitelen e sitelen Lowa. ona li toki e ni: "nimi mi li sitelen Lowa")

sitelen Lowa li sama ala sitelen ante. sitelen Lowa li jo e wile mute!

tenpo suno mute la, sitelen Lowa li awen. ona li jo ala e noka tan tawa! sitelen Lowa li wile e nasin tawa. ona li pilin e ni: "ma ale li suli mute, taso mi lon awen! ma ante la, mi ken lukin e ijo sin mute!".

tenpo suno kama la, ni li ante. sitelen Lowa li alasa e ilo nasa!

tenpo open la, ona li pilin nasa. ona li lukin e ijo sama ni lon tenpo ala! luka ona li jo li tawa e ilo nasa. tenpo kama lili la, sitelen Lowa li sona e ni: ona li ken pali e sitelen kepeken e ilo ni! sitelen Lowa li pilin pona mute mute! ona li pali e sitelen noka. ona li sitelen pona pi loje walo ala! ona li sitelen pona li loje walo tawa! ni la, ona li pana e ona e nimi sin. ona li sitelen Lowata! At first, Lowa felt strange about it. It'd never seen anything like this before! It cautiously picked up the tool and moved it around. It didn't take long for Lowa to relize that it could make marks with this new tool. Lowa was estatic! It immediately drew itself a pair of legs. unfinished second part: I tried to write a second chapter, but lost akddkljf sitelen Lowata li ken ale! tenpo open la, ona li tawa kepeken e sona ala. ale li sin mute tawa ona. ona li lukin li kute li pilin e ijo sin. tenpo kama la, sitelen Lowata li lukin e kulupu suli pi ijo nasa. ijo ni li sama ala e sitelen Lowata. ijo ni li jo e noka tu tu e oko tu. ijo suli li lon poka e ijo lili mute. ijo lili li suwi tawa sitelen Lowata, taso ijo suli li monsuta tawa ona! sitelen Lowata sona ala e pali. Lowata the doodle was finally free! Starting now, it would journey into the unknown! Everything was very new to Lowata. It saw, heard, and felt ?????. Eventrually, Lowata saw a large group of strange doodles in the distance. They didn't look like Lowata at all. These things had four legs and two eyes. There was a large doodle next to a bunch of small doodles. Lowata thought the small ones looked cute, but was afriad of the big one. Lowata didn't know what to do. "Does it want to hurt me?" it thought to itself. Lowata eventrually decided it was going to try to talk to the strange doodles. Lowata slowly crept towards the doodles. It wasn't long before the largest of the group noticed of it. Lowata looked back at the mysterious being, and let out "hello!". The large doodle responded with a thunderous "MU!!!!!!". The roar starttled Lowata. "Why doesn't this guy talk to me?" Lowata thought as it ran away in fear.

Here's how you can make bold and italic text.

Here's how you can add an image:

Here's how to make a list:

• First thing
• Second thing
• Third thing