Colors in Toki Pona

Toki Pona has five color words: walo, pimeja, loje, jelo, and laso. walo and pimeja describe lightness, and the other three describe hue.

Basic color terms

Color words in Toki Pona are much broader than in English. loje refers to reds, pinks, and oranges. jelo refers to yellows as well as some oranges and greenish-yellows. laso is broad, referring to greens, blues, and some purples.

This follows from the color-term hierarchy seen in natural languages. When a natural language has 5 basic color terms, it typically places blue and green in the same category.

While walo and pimeja primarily describe lightness, they may also be used to describe light and dark colors that aren’t neutral; for instance, pimeja is often used to describe brown.

Color terms in use

Although Toki Pona places the English categories green and blue under the same umbrella, Toki Pona speakers rarely specify the difference. Color terms are almost always used in context to specify in comparison with other colors.

The lime color is better described as laso in the first instance, but when compared to a deep blue, it’s better described as jelo. The blue is easily described by laso in the second example, but it may also be described with pimeja like in the third example.

When colors modify each other, the first color is the primary one. A laso jelo is a yellowish green which is closer to laso, and a jelo laso is a greenish yellow which is closer to jelo.