Appendix:Toki Pona/tonsi

Toki Pona

From Mandarin 同志 (tóngzhì, “comrade, same will/purpose; LGBT+”). Coined by jan inwin in 2019.

tonsi

(post-pu) non-binary, gender-nonconforming, genderqueer
Coordinate terms: meli, mije
- 2021, Sonja Lang, Toki Pona Dictionary, →ISBN:
  kijetesantakalu tonsi li lanpan ala lanpan e soko?
  Does the non-binary procyonid steal mushrooms?
(post-pu, less common) trans, non-cisgender

This word was made by the Toki Pona community after the publication of Sonja Lang's 2014 book Toki Pona: The Language of Good. It has later been recognized as essential vocabulary by Sonja Lang in her 2021 publication The Toki Pona Dictionary and in the Esperanto translation of Toki Pona: The Language of Good.

According to Linku, this word is classified as "widespread", being used by 83% of respondents in a poll from August 2023.

Using tonsi to describe binary transgender people is somewhat controversial. Most speakers consider tonsi to be a third gender term coordinate to meli and mije, and there is no consensus whether being born on the other side of the meli–mije duality necessarily causes one to be tonsi. According to Lipamanka, binary transgender people may decide to adopt the tonsi label or reject it, based on their personal conception of what being trans means.[1]

Some ways in which binary transgender people may express their identity are as follows. (These wordings are for trans women; for trans men, swap mije “man” and meli “woman”)

meli — “woman”, finding the fact that they are transgender unimportant or irrelevant
meli pi sijelo mije — “male-bodied woman”, using sijelo to allude to the sex–gender duality
mije pi kon meli — “woman-souled male”. kon is also sometimes used to mean “gender”, in contrast with sijelo to mean “sex” as in the previous example.
jan pi kama meli — “person becoming a woman”

Note that, however, because Toki Pona words have broad meanings, someone who uses these alternatives may not be transgender, but instead a gender non-conforming person or a crossdresser who intends the phrase to be taken in a different metaphorical sense.

A minority of speakers with strong feelings about gender elect to use neither meli nor mije. Some of them will use tonsi while not mentioning gender if it is binary, while others decide not to mention gender in any way in Toki Pona.[2]