What if French (or Spanish or Polish or Korean) had 137 words? That’s it – just 137. In a week you could memorize the entire vocabulary.

But with so few words, how could you say such things as Toto did not really care whether he was in Kansas or the Land of Oz so long as Dorothy was with him? Or four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal?

Surely 137 words would be too few to say much of anything. Or would it?

In 2001, linguist Sonja Lang invented a language called Toki Pona. It had 120 words. It now has 137. And thousands of people across the world speak it.

Why bother learning such a tiny language? I’ll give you three reasons:

One. The way we think is governed to a large extent by the language we speak. The vocabulary. The things there are words for and the things there are not. How the words fit together and how they don’t.

A person who speaks one language and a person who speaks another language think differently. Part of this is cultural, but part of it is the influence exerted by language itself. (Read about the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis to understand more about this.) Learning a second language exercises and expands our thinking in a way that a single language cannot.

Two. Becoming fluent in a major language takes enormous effort. How many of us took a year or more of Spanish or French in high school and now can hardly put together three coherent sentences in that language?

Three. Speaking a shared language bonds us to others in a heart-felt way.

Toki Pona, a language with only 137 words, ticks all three boxes. It refreshes and expands our brain, it’s easy to learn, and it bonds us to others in a way that runs counter to all the unbonding that is rampant in the world.

Sonja Lang (formerly Sonja Elen Kisa) was born in 1978 in New Brunswick, Canada. She grew up in a bilingual family: her mother spoke French, and her father, English. She became fluent in five languages.

Lang said that in 2001 she was struggling with depression and started working on Toki Pona as a way to simplify her thoughts. She published an early version of the language online, and it quickly gained popularity.

Today, thousands of people speak and write Toki Pona. Many say they became fluent in as little as a month.

Back to the question of expressing complex ideas with only 137 words. I recently saw a Toki Pona translation of the Gettysburg Address. And in February of this year, Sonja Lang published a Toki Pona version of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Go to tokipona.org and you’ll find tons of resources for learning this fascinating little language.

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