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Comment by JimDabell | Hacker News Reader

> “jan pona” (“good person”) very commonly means “friend”.

But “good person” and “friend” are two very different things. I might describe a well-known charitable figure as a good person, but that wouldn’t mean I would be calling them my friend. One is a value judgement and the other is a personal relationship.

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...in English

But English has similar ambiguities. For example, a "girlfriend" is usually not just a girl friend. Other expressions are used when there is no romantic relationship.

I don't know toki pona but there is probably another expression for actual good people. Maybe something like "person of high value".

The language is also geared towards expressing ideas in general much more than expressing your own feelings. In this way, a "good person" is someone you would consider a friend even if you've never met, which while not exactly a concept that's entirely sane on the internet, makes a lot of sense in a more thighs knit community (eg: a good person is a friend to the community and therefore a friend to me).

I have a direct answer: once you get good enough at toki pona to want to distinguish, you do some personal reflection about what a friend is to you and find more specific ways to say that, such as jan poka (accompanying person) or jan mi (my person). You can also specify whether jan li pona tawa mi (good to me) or li pona tawa kulupu (good to the broader community).

"Arm" and "hand" are two very different things (I guess?), but they are the same word (рука) in Russian.

That's likely no different than a homonym in English or a word with multiple meanings. Almost always context makes the meaning clear.

Even in English the term "friend" is ambiguous though, some people refer to someone they've only met once as a friend already, whereas others really need to think about who they consider a friend.

So call them "my good person" giving the implication of familiarity. Similarly my best person could be your best friend.

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