Introduction
The minimalistic approach that jan Sonja can makes us see how complicated our languages are, getting us away from the original unity of the "Dao" which gave birth to the myriad of things.
Assuming the validity of Sapir-Worth hypothesis, which states that people who speak different languages perceive and think about the world quite differently, we may infer that the language we use shapes our brain to see the world as essentially divided. I consider this as one of the reasons we are constantly trying to impose our opinions to other people.
Another reason I enumerate is the fear to leave the memory away, which is present in language by three mechanisms: time and possession.
According to the second chapter of Dao de Jing, the Sage:
"Manages affairs without action;
Preaches the doctrine without words;
All things take their rise, but he does not turn away from them;
He gives them life, but does not take possession of them;
He acts, but does not appropriate;
Accomplishes, but claims no credit.
It is because he lays claim to no credit
That the credit cannot be taken away from him" (Lin Yutang's translation),
that is: the Sage essentially disregards the appropriation of deeds. He would not say: "I am a good person", but instead something like: "I am helping him, and I feel happy this way". This way he acts very "waterly" by not clinging to neither the situation nor the senseless verb "to be". Some people even tell that the psychologist Albert Ellis, founder of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, used to tell his clients to avoid it so they could frame things as temporary. This verb find its contradiction in the famous quote attributed to Heraclitus: "No man ever steps in the same river twice, for we cannot call it the same river and we cannot call him the same man." This is the essence of what I refer to as the "water logic" as opposed to the "to be" or Aristotelian logic.
Maybe people would not make endless and countless discussions and even wars if they thought of sentences like:
"I am American, you are a terrorist"
"I am Christian, you are Muslim"
"I am heterossexual, you are a sinner"
"I am liberal, you are conservative"
"I am right, you are wrong"
as entirely senseless, at least according to the "water logic", which demands the flexibility expressed in the teachings of Lao Zi:
"34. The Great Tao flows everywhere,
(Like a flood) it may go left or right.
The myriad things derive their life from it,
And it does not deny them.
When its work is accomplished,
It does not take possession.
It clothes and feeds the myriad things,
Yet does not claim them as its own.
Often (regarded) without mind or passion,
It may be considered small.
Being the home of all things, yet claiming not,
It may be considered great.
Because to the end it does not claim greatness,
Its greatness is achieved." (Lin Yutang's translation)
Proponing Toki Telo
Toki Telo is an attempt to express Toki Pona vocabulary in the "water logic". Its vocabulary is based on the original vocabulary created by Sonja Lang, with a few differences:
In order to deal with time, the word "tenpo" would be eliminated.
In order to deal with possession, the word "pi" would be used only as a separator in compound nouns.
In order to deal with grammar rigidity, the words "li", "wi", "e", "tawa", "la" and "tan" would be used as particles of subject, verb, direct object, indirect subject, condition and origin/reason, placed after the word as in japanese.
"mi pana e moku tawa sina" could be written as either
"mi li pana wi moku e sina tawa"
"moku e sina tawa pana wi mi li"
"sina tawa mi li pana wi moku e"
or in any of the 4!=24 possible orders, according to the importance you want to give to each particle. I also think we should have a word for the verb "to go", maybe "mopi" (from the Esperanto "movi", to move). This way we could also replace "kama tan" by "mopi tan", avoiding getting a bigger vocabulary.
The word "o" would be restricted to the vocative case, so we would not make commands, but instead asking for things by saying "mi wile e ni:".
In order to deal with the verb "to be", the particle "ati" (from the Esperanto "atribui", to attribute) could be used this way:
"mi li sina tawa suli ati" (I consider you a tall person).
In order to allow more pluralism we could eliminate the words "pona" and "ike". Instead we could use "pilin" as a particle for emotion and have words for the six primary emotions identified by Paul Ekman: anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise. As they are respectively called kolero, naŭzo, timo, feliĉo, malĝojo and surprizo in Esperanto, I propose the words kolo, naso, simo, peliko, mako and suso.
sina li pona tawa mi -> mi li peliko pilin sina tan.
