Trivial toki pona Substitutions

Sona November 16, 2025
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toki open

There is a family of programming languages that are called "Trivial Brainf*ck Substitutions" (TBFS for short). They basically take the 8 characters used in Brainf*ck and represent them using other strings of characters. This is (somewhat) the same idea behind sitelen pona and sitelen kuwi. I would even guess that it's the same idea behind sitelen sitelen, but I don't know enough yet about sitelen sitelen to make that conclusion.

https://esolangs.org/wiki/Trivialbrainfucksubstitution

TTPS

As the title says, this is my attempt at a "trivial toki pona substitution" (TTPS). Inspired from the following:

This is an English-styled TTPS that I created in 1 hour, I like to call it "sitelen ike":

toki pona sitelen ike
a ha
akesi lizard
ala not
alasa hunt
ale all
anpa before
ante difference
anu or
awen stop
e :
en and
esun buy
ijo thing
ike bad
ilo tool
insa inside
jaki toxic
jan person
jelo yellow
jo have
kala fish
kalama utter
kama come
kasi plant
ken can
kepeken use
kili fruit
kin also
kiwen rock
ko goo
kon air
kule color
kulupu group
kute listen
la -
lape sleep
laso turquoise
lawa control
len fabric
lete cold
li ,
lili small
linja line
lipu paper
loje red
lon exist
luka hand
lukin look
lupa hole
ma land
mama parent
mani currency
mi me
moku eat
moli die
monsi after
mu onomatopoiea
mun satellite
musi game
mute many
nanpa number
nasa weird
nasin way
nena bump
ni this
nimi word
noka foot
o do
olin love
ona that
open open
pakala break
pali work
palisa stick
pan bread
pana emit
pi ;
pilin emotion
pimeja black
pini end
pipi insect
poka next
poki cup
pona good
pu Pu
sama same
seli hot
selo layer
seme what
sewi supernatural
sijelo silhouette
sike circle
sin new
sina you
sinpin wall
sitelen image
sona learn
soweli animal
suli big
suno sun
supa sofa
suwi sweet
tan from
taso only
tawa towards
telo water
tenpo time
toki speak
tomo residence
tu two
unpa coitus
uta sing
utala war
walo white
wan one
waso bird
wawa power
weka empty
wile necessity

The following is the introduction for the text about the Buddha in tokipona.org:

toki open tan jan pi ante toki

lipu lili ni li lipu nanpa wan tan lipu suli Sitata · wile kulupu la mi kama pana e lipu nanpa tu · lipu tu taso li lon · o toki e pilin sina e wile sina · toki kulupu la mi ken sona e wile jan ·

lipu ni li kama tan kon Eman Ese · taso ni li jan seme? tenpo pini la ona li jan lipu suli · ona li kama tan ma Tosi suli · lipu mute la ona li wile pana e sitelen pi alasa sona · kon jan pi lipu ona li alasa e lon e sona e nasin sewi · kon Ese la nasin mute li ken sewi · nasin wan li nasin taso ala ·

jan pi toki pona li lukin e lipu ni la ona o awen sona e ni · lipu ni li pana ala e sona lon pi nasin Puta, li pana ala e nasin sewi pi kon Ese · taso la ona li pana e sitelen wile pi kon Ese : sitelen la jan li ken alasa e lon e sewi kepeken nasin pi ona taso · jan ale o kama sona e lon ona · ken la lon ona li lon pi jan ante ala · taso ni li ike ala · sina wile kama sona lili e nasin Puta lon la mi pana e sitelen lili lon pini lipu · ni la jan li sona pona e ante pi nasin Puta e ante pi nasin Sitata e sitelen pi kon Ese ·

lipu Sitata li sitelen lon tenpo pi jan pini Puta · kon Ese li kepeken nimi mute li pana e ma mute tan tenpo pini pi jan Puta, tan lipu pi nasin Puta · jan li sona pona ala e nimi ni la sona lipu li ken nasa · ni la mi pana kin lon pini lipu e nimi ale ni pi toki ante · sina wile kama sona e kon e tan la o lukin · taso o sona kin e ni : mi ante e toki mama pi lipu Sitata la nimi li ken ante · ken la nimi pi toki Inli li kama ante kepeken nimi pi toki pona · ken la nimi tan tenpo pi jan Puta li kama weka, li kama nimi ante kepeken toki pona · mi ante e nimi la mi wile e ni : jan ale li ken sona pona kepeken toki pona ·

kulupu o lukin pona, o musi pona a!

— jan Kala

You can read more here:

https://tokipona.org/sitata/

Here is the same text, in sitelen ike:

speak open from person ; difference speak

paper small this , paper number one from paper big Sitata · necessity group - me come emit : paper number two · paper two only , exist · do speak : emotion you : necessity you · speak group - me can learn : necessity person ·

paper this , come from air Eman Ese · only this , person what? time end - that , person paper big · that , come from land Tosi big · paper many - that , necessity emit : image ; hunt learn · air person ; paper that , hunt : exist : learn : way hot · air Ese - way many , can hot · way one , way only not ·

person ; speak good , look : paper this - that do stop learn : this · paper this , emit not : learn exist ; way Puta , emit not : way hot ; air Ese · only - that , emit : image necessity ; air Ese : image - person , can hunt : exist : hot use way ; that only · person all do come learn : exist that · can - exist that , exist ; person difference not · only this , bad not · you necessity come learn small : way Puta exist - me emit : image small exist end paper · this - person , learn good : difference ; way Puta : difference ; way Sitata : image ; air Ese ·

paper Sitata , image exist time ; person end Puta · air Ese , use word many , emit : land many from time end ; person Puta from paper ; way Puta · person , learn good not : word this - learn paper , can weird · this - me emit also exist end paper : word all this ; speak difference · you necessity come learn : air : from - do look · only do learn also : ni : me difference : speak parent ; paper Sitata - word , can difference · can - word ; speak Inli , come difference use word ; speak good · can - word from time ; person Puta , come empty , come word difference use speak good · me difference : word - me necessity : this : person all , can learn good use speak good ·

group do look good, do game good ha!

— person Kala

FAQ

  • Why did you call it sitelen ike?
    • This script goes against the very nasin behind toki pona (IMO). So, it is "ike."
  • Why did you do this?
    • I was recently made aware of sitelen kuwi and sitelen telo. Though I really disagree with the philosphy behind sitelen telo, I really like sitelen kuwi! This really reminded me of TBFS so I tried doing the same for toki pona and ended up with that piece of text up there.

https://clockwise3411.github.io/lipu-sona-pi-sitelen-Kuwi/

https://sona.pona.la/wiki/sitelen_telo

I would like to see some TTPS made for other natural languages. To me, sitelen ike is somewhat readable.

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