#Things that sound like they were originally written in toki pona

39 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

river pond
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Meant as a spiritual sister thread to #1249820721434329178. Do you ever encounter something in English (or another toki ike) that sounds more like a translation from Toki Pona than something natural?

Examples that come to mind for me:

"Hurt" by Nine Inch Nails:

If I could start again
A million miles away
I would keep myself
I would find a way
"keep" feels like a slight mistranslation of awen

"East/West Bowl Rap" by Key & Peele:

Where football’s concerned, we're gonna show you that we are the best
Feels like a lazy handling of a la clause

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n mi lukin ala e tenpo a a

spark smelt
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n...

crystal jungle
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i would probably mention some of the user-made caveman english texts
especially those 3 (or less/more) word sentences, like “me want banana”, “bad animal is bad” “grok died” “give food to cave roomate”

last summit
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sona ala pi sona ala li lon

There are unknown unknowns

"There are unknown unknowns" is a phrase from a response United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld gave to a question at a U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) news briefing on February 12, 2002, about the lack of evidence linking the government of Iraq with the supply of weapons of mass destruction to terrorist groups. Rumsfeld stated:

Re...

spark smelt
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loku ju nana

plucky flintBOT
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despair not that...

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(六十七 rokujuunana "67")

crystal jungle
river pond
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the shortcut ctrl+w. clearly "ctrl weka". makes no sense in English.

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also: Pocatello, Idaho

river pond
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this Samsung refrigerator is clearly mistranslating "poki"

IMG_20250926_195928931.jpg
spark smelt
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mama Raora

Screenshot_2025-09-28-17-55-01-36_f9ee0578fe1cc94de7482bd41accb329.jpg
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"I'm good speaking right now"
Is definitely mi toki pona lon tenpo ni

plucky flintBOT
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wow a holoID reference in my ma pona what are the chances

jan Pikesike ↩️

[Reply to:](#1419664692904853636 message) mama Raora 📎

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and wow pannenkoek2012 too?? we're one social connection away from each other

spark smelt
plucky flintBOT
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sorry there's something wrong with me

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yay for mental disorder

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Raora is from the recent holoEN generation. the one that like just happened. gen 4 or 5 or something. with Gigi and Ceci and the other one

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her name is Liz isn't it

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yeah the British

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the generation after Fuwamoco and Shiori and Nerissa and um. who else. oh Biboo

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and. hol—ohh for holoID I'm thinking of Moona. five letter name ending in a

spark smelt
spark smelt
plucky flintBOT
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that's what it's called yeah

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they do law enforcement on Advent or something

river pond
spark smelt
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lipu Si la, ni

spark smelt
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test

jade hinge
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mi tawa insa pi telo suli.

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soweli supa li moku e mi.

bleak otter