toki pona enhanced

toki pona enhanced (aka TPE) is a dialect of toki pona that employs advances in the science of Lojban applied to the syntax of toki pona.

Basic sentence structure

Main TPE words are verbs like

"soweli" = to be an animal

"moku" = to eat (something)

soweli li moku
A mouse eats.

The verb before the particle "li" becomes a noun. The verb after "li" remains a verb.

TPE also have words that act only as nouns. Those are pronouns:

"mi" = I

"sina" = you

"ona" = he, she, they, it

"ni" = this

Thus they don't require "li" to separate them from the forthcoming verb:

mi moku
I eat.

Topic and comment

A more common sentence have two parts: topic and comment separated with the particle "la":

soweli li moku la ona kepeken e ijo
When a mouse eats it uses a fork. (literally)
A mouse eats using a fork (actual meaning)

"kepeken" = to use

Topic is before "la", comment is after "la".

"la" is used to express prepositions. In this case the preposition "with" is rephrased in TPE with the verb "kepeken".

"la" can also be used to express conditions like "if" and "when". This sentence can also be translated as "If a mouse eats it uses a fork."

Anaphora

soweli li moku la ona kepeken e ijo
When a mouse eats it uses a fork. (literally)
A mouse eats using a fork (actual meaning)

Anaphoric particle "ona" refers to the previous known from context noun. In this isolated example it definitely refers to the noun "soweli" since there are no other nouns before "ona".

Two nouns of a verb

Verb can have more than one noun:

mi moku e ijo
I eat something.
I eat food.

"moku" = to eat (something)

The second noun is put after the verb and separated with the particle "e".

Questions

The question verb "seme" is used for asking content questions:

seme li moku
Who eats?

Sentences with questions usually have a raising intonation.

Separating sentences

Sentences are separated by lowering the intonation till the end of the sentence and putting an at least short pause after them.

Question sentences are separated by raising the intonation till the end of the sentence and putting an at least short pause after them.

In writing sentence are separated by a dot placed at the end of them.

Linking sentences together

If you want to show that two sentences express the same idea use "en la" to connect them:

Differences from toki pona

In toki pona language "moku" can mean both "to eat" and "food". in TPE this is avoided. You say

mi moku e ijo. ona li pona
I eat something. It (i.e. food) is good.