Toki pona is a constructed language created by Sonja Lang in 2001. The language is an attempt to create a vocabulary that encourages simplicity and positivity.
The language consist of only 137 core words using 14 letters (a, e, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, s, t, u, w). All the words are constructed so that it should be easy to pronounce them for people with different language backgrounds.
Toki means language and pona can mean good or simple. So it can mean both good- and simple language. The simplicity is inspired by the Taoist philosophy, encouraging to think in elementary terms.
The good part is inspired by the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis which claims that the language can affect how a person thinks. Encouraging positive thinking should increase the positive behaviour.
Most of the words in toki pona are adapted from other languages. There are even a few words directly borrowed from Finnish.
While the language can be written in common latin alphabets there are also multiple alternative writing systems. The most commonly used ones are two logographic systems sitelen pona and sitelen suwi which have a dedicated symbol for each word.