Appendix:Toki Pona/pi

From Tok Pisin bilong (“of, belonging to”), from English belong.

• IPA^(key): /pi/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -i

pi

1. introduces a postmodifying multi-word phrase

   tomo telo nasa li sama ala tomo pi telo nasa.

   A weird washroom (weird liquid room) is not the same as a pub (weird-liquid room).

• Without pi, each content word modifies the preceding phrase individually in succession. pi regroups the following words to modify the preceding phrase as a unit. It is roughly equivalent to hyphenating a phrasal adjective in English.
• Using pi followed by one word is proscribed. As there is nothing to regroup, the meaning is unchanged from the same phrase without pi.
• If pi is used twice in one phrase, there is no consensus on whether the second pi phrase modifies the first pi phrase (nested), or both modify the head phrase (flat).
• pi is often glossed as “of”, in the sense of introducing a postmodifying noun phrase. Using pi for its other senses is proscribed. Note that phrases without pi can be translated using of, as in toki pona, “the language of good”.
• While pi can occur before possessive phrases, it does not itself mark the possessive. Compare tomo mi, “my house”, and tomo pi jan Epawan, “Abraham's house”. Both modifiers are possessive; the pi merely groups the two words in the proper name.