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A whole language built from about 120 words

Ellsworth Toohey
Jul 20, 2026
∙ Paid
kala pona Tonyu / CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

Most invented languages try to say everything. Toki Pona tries to say just enough — with about 120 words and 14 sounds. The Canadian translator Sonja Lang built it in 2001, while she was struggling with depression, as a way to simplify her own thoughts. She pared human experience down to a handful of nea…

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