Our project has rapidly become the most successful Toki Pona Bible translation we know of ― our translation procedures are more rigorous and interactive than others’, and we are rewarded for this rigor with a persistent project and a high rate of progress.
Toki Pona is a constructed language by linguist Sonja Lang back in 2001. It’s the language with the world’s smallest vocabulary and has a quickly growing community. If you want to learn more about Toki Pona, you may want to watch this video by RobWords on YouTube: The language with only [about] 120 words.
The Bible, for sure, had and has a big impact on mankind, either as a masterpiece of literature, or as a religious text. Translating the Bible into Toki Pona is our contribution to honor the huge importance of it by making it availlable also for Toki Pona speakers.
our method
The translation process begins when a Translator decides to submit an initial translation for a verse. In this situation, they navigate to the channel in the Discord server and check to see whether a thread has been opened yet for that verse. If not, the translator opens a new thread for the verse and sends their initial translation in the thread.
Upon seeing that a new initial translation has been put forth, a Proofreader and an appropriate Biblical Language Specialist join the thread to revise the translation, forming a Translation Crew. The Biblical Language Specialist makes sure that the translation matches the original text as closely as possible, while the Proofreader makes sure that the translation is understandable according to toki pona grammar.
Once a translation has been approved by a Translator, a Proofreader, and an appropriate Biblical Language Specialist, it is finalised. Finalised verses are periodically added to the repo.
how to participate
If you want to participate, join our Discord server: Toki Pona Bible Project
We also have a “lurker” role, if you just want to observe the translation process. You might take a more active role later on. By the way: you don’t need to be Toki Pona fluent to participate. Trying your own translation is a good way to improve your Toki Pona skills!