This dialect of toki pona is heavily based on my previous attemt to write a dialect, called tok' apona (that repository is still online for historical reasons, it will not be updated anymore). Every informal use is optional, and to be avoided in formal use!
Every word that is longer than three letters can be shortened, especially if a word's last vowel is the same as the following word's first letter, as far as the word is clearly recognizable. If a three long word seems to be shortened, that it signs that the vowel is nasal. This is marked by an apostrophe!
The contractions are unmarked, unless it says otherwise.
mi and sina became -mi and -na suffixes after verbs and prepositions, and ona became o' before verbs, prepositions, pi li and pli (wilemi, wilena, o' li wile)
sina can shorten to -na even after pi (...pi 'na).
This can be shortened to a- or al- prefix (depends on whether the word-to-be-negated starts with a vowel or a consonant). It can negate verbs, prepositions, nouns and adjectives. The word-to-be-negated cannot start with an a! (awile, alunpa) If there are only the negated adjective and ala after a noun, the use of "pi" is unnecessary (hence, "tok' apona" instead of "toki pi apona").
It is recommended to separate the a- prefix and the word with a hyphene (e.g. "a-pali", "al-ike").
This can be shortened to l' before the predicate (especially if it begins with a vowel). It can be done if the predicate begins, or the subject ends with a vowel. It can take one of these two position:
- before the predicate as a prefix, if it begins with a vowel (l'olin),
- after the subject as a postfix, if the predicate begins with a consonant (lawal' toki).
Shortening the li before a shortened ala is not recommended (too similar to la; you should not do it, unless you want to increase ambiguity), but shortening it before (a not shortened) ala is fine.
As a special case, pi li can be shortened to pli or p'li.
In X ni structures (where X can be a preposition or the e particle), the ni can be elided, and without ending the sentence, the text (i.e. the next sentence) continues.
For example: mi sona e ni: monsuta li lon ala becomes mi sona e monsuta li lon ala.
pi can be dropped when it separates a noun and multiple modifiers connected by en (see: conjuctions > and > other cases in the grammar).
This part was originally in [grammar.md], but it was moved here. I also removed most of the "warnings" due to it not being among the normal stuff.
pi is (very rarely and wrongly) also used for relative clauses sometimes (mi lukin e jan pi moku e kala -- I see a man who eats a fish): this practice is not recommended and technically incorrect.
I recommend to use pi li for relative clauses, which originates from jan Sonja (the reference would be here, but my request for approval was left unanswered). It can be used after either the subject or the object.
For (a ridiculous) example: ona pi li moku e kala li olin e jan pi li moku e kili. -- They, who eat a fish, love people, whom eat fruits.
Note: this latter use is anything but pu or standard. A usual way to express this would be something like this: jan pi moku kala li olin e jan pi moku kili. This is very ambiguous (in every meaning of the word) and arguably wrong too.
A preposition's or a verb's terminal 'n' can be assimilated to the following noun's or subject-suffix's 'n' or 'm' ("tammi" from "tan mi" and "lomma" from "lon ma").
It is often seen that people shorten tenpo ni as tenni. Other variations are also seen sometimes. In these cases, the ten- prefix stands for tenpo.
Often and internationally used words (the Internet for example) are also can be used as unofficial word, or as a noun, eliminating the restriction that they should also be an adjective.