Toki Pona: Ike Mute and Math
From the canon, precise numbers are bad and the grammatically correct way to say 101 is
tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu
tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu
tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu
tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu
tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu wan
Which of course is laughable and it’s better to say ‘mute’. The traditional Tokiponans call innovations to remedy this, “ike-mute.” Ike-mute appears to be idiomatic and derogatory for speaking with excessive complexity. Maybe it just means, verbose as opposed to conversational.
So, with the understanding that we are talking mostly about super formal, more verbose than normal tokipona, I’m proposing some Toki Pona numbers, 1 to 100. They are remarkably efficient and stick to the general spirit of Toki-pona.
Irregulars. Luka means five, pona-ojo means lucky 7, nanpa kulupu means ten, nanpa kulupu mute means 100, and the number before 100 is nanpa kulupu mute anpa, or 99. For a Tokiponan to talk about real estate in the DC area, they will need some more irregular numbers
Luka is like ‘ain’t’ It ain’t in the dictionary, at least not in the sense of ‘five’. Tokiponans are proud people and don’t want outsider’s to think that they still count on their hands.
The base three method of counting 5 is tu-tu-wan, nine is tu-tu-tu-tu-wan. Base three starts getting really silly around 10 and 100 will have you ROTFL. With the above modifications, you can count to 100 with at worst a two dozen character word (not counting the optional nanpa).
The split between orders of magnitude is indicated by ‘en’, so 78 is 7 and 8. This is distinguished from addition because summation is indicated by the verb ‘li wan’
(note, I machine generated this and the program had some bugs, so check for common sense)
1 = nanpa wan, [3 chars]
2 = nanpa tu, [2 chars]
3 = nanpa tu-wan, [6 chars]
4 = nanpa tu-tu, [5 chars]
5 = nanpa luka, [4 chars]
6 = nanpa luka-wan, [8 chars]
7 = nanpa pona-ijo, [8 chars]
8 = nanpa luka-tu, [7 chars]
9 = nanpa kulupu-anpa, [11 chars]
10 = nanpa kulupu, [6 chars]
11 = nanpa wan en wan, [10 chars]
12 = nanpa wan en tu, [9 chars]
13 = nanpa wan en tu-wan, [13 chars]
14 = nanpa wan en tu-tu, [12 chars]
15 = nanpa wan en luka, [11 chars]
16 = nanpa wan en luka-wan, [15 chars]
17 = nanpa wan en pona-ijo, [15 chars]
18 = nanpa wan en luka-tu, [14 chars]
19 = nanpa tu en ala anpa,
20 = nanpa tu en ala, [9 chars] — also “luka ale”, i.e. all toes and fingers
21 = nanpa tu en wan, [9 chars]
22 = nanpa tu en tu, [8 chars]
23 = nanpa tu en tu-wan, [12 chars]
24 = nanpa tu en tu-tu, [11 chars]
25 = nanpa tu en luka, [10 chars]
26 = nanpa tu en luka-wan, [14 chars]
27 = nanpa tu en pona-ijo, [14 chars]
28 = nanpa tu en luka-tu, [13 chars]
29 = nanpa tu-wan en ala anpa, [10 chars]
30 = nanpa tu-wan en ala, [13 chars]
31 = nanpa tu-wan en wan, [13 chars]
32 = nanpa tu-wan en tu, [12 chars]
33 = nanpa tu-wan en tu-wan, [16 chars]
34 = nanpa tu-wan en tu-tu, [15 chars]
35 = nanpa tu-wan en luka, [14 chars]
36 = nanpa tu-wan en luka-wan, [18 chars]
37 = nanpa tu-wan en pona-ijo, [18 chars]
38 = nanpa tu-wan en luka-tu, [17 chars]
39 = nanpa tu-tu en ala anpa,
40 = nanpa tu-tu en ala,
41 = nanpa tu-tu en wan,
42 = nanpa tu-tu en tu,
43 = nanpa tu-tu en tu-wan,
44 = nanpa tu-tu en tu-tu,
45 = nanpa tu-tu en luka,
46 = nanpa tu-tu en luka-wan,
47 = nanpa tu-tu en pona-ijo,
48 = nanpa tu-tu en luka-tu,
49 = nanpa luka en ala anpa,
50 = nanpa luka en ala,
51 = nanpa luka en wan,
52 = nanpa luka en tu,
53 = nanpa luka en tu-wan,
54 = nanpa luka en tu-tu,
55 = nanpa luka en luka,
56 = nanpa luka en luka-wan,
57 = nanpa luka en pona-ijo,
58 = nanpa luka en luka-tu,
59 = nanpa luka-wan en ala anpa,
60 = nanpa luka-wan en ala,
61 = nanpa luka-wan en wan,
62 = nanpa luka-wan en tu,
63 = nanpa luka-wan en tu-wan,
64 = nanpa luka-wan en tu-tu,
65 = nanpa luka-wan en luka,
66 = nanpa luka-wan en luka-wan,
67 = nanpa luka-wan en pona-ijo,
68 = nanpa luka-wan en luka-tu,
69 = nanpa pona-ijo en ala anpa,
70 = nanpa pona-ijo en ala,
71 = nanpa pona-ijo en wan,
72 = nanpa pona-ijo en tu,
73 = nanpa pona-ijo en tu-wan,
74 = nanpa pona-ijo en tu-tu,
75 = nanpa pona-ijo en luka,
76 = nanpa pona-ijo en luka-wan,
77 = nanpa pona-ijo en pona-ijo,
78 = nanpa pona-ijo en luka-tu,
79 = nanpa luka-tu-wan en ala anpa,
80 = nanpa luka-tu-wan en ala,
81 = nanpa luka-tu-wan en wan,
82 = nanpa luka-tu-wan en tu,
83 = nanpa luka-tu-wan en tu-wan,
84 = nanpa luka-tu-wan en tu-tu,
85 = nanpa luka-tu-wan en luka,
86 = nanpa luka-tu-wan en luka-wan,
87 = nanpa luka-tu-wan en pona-ijo,
88 = nanpa luka-tu-wan en luka-tu,
89 = nanpa luka-tu-tu en ala anpa,
90 = nanpa luka-tu-tu en ala,
91 = nanpa luka-tu-tu en wan,
92 = nanpa luka-tu-tu en tu,
93 = nanpa luka-tu-tu en tu-wan,
94 = nanpa luka-tu-tu en tu-tu,
95 = nanpa luka-tu-tu en luka,
96 = nanpa luka-tu-tu en luka-wan,
97 = nanpa luka-tu-tu en pona-ijo,
98 = nanpa luka-tu-tu en luka-tu,
99 = nanpa kulupu-mute anpa,
100 = nanpa kulupu-mute,
Operations
The Tokiponans have been getting ripped off by credit card companies, whose interest rates all seem to be mute mute. In the interest of improving the communities financial well being, here’s enough to get through some basic math.
In a different context, these phrases may have other meanings. Discovering those alternate meanings is an exercise left to the reader.
Some operations use numbers in the name, so the verbose style requires putting nanpa before each number.
Add – li wan, literally, unite
Subtract – li anpa, literally difference
Multiply – li unpa, literally multiple (as in go forth an multiply)
Divide – li tu, literally split
Exponentiation — li wawa, literally empower
Natural Logarithm – li palisa, from palisa, “stick, rod”
Fractions
To represent fractions, either use the verb for division, li tu, or emphasize the fractional nature of with pakala.
nanpa luka-wan pakala nanpa wan = 2/7 , 7 break 2
Alternatively
luka-wan pakala e wan– conversational
Decimals – decimal point = sike…
nanpa wan sike nanpa wan en luka = 1.15
Equals – lon
Nanpa wan li wan nanpa wan lon nanpa tu– verbose
Wan en wan kama tu– conversational
[Update: there are at least two additional proposals for numbers and operations, one in French and one on the yahoo mailing list]