User:Meuser2/Sandbox/Proto-Toki-Pona/Development of Toki Pona

As the name suggests, Proto-Toki-Pona is the parent language of Toki Pona. This page discusses the development of Toki Pona from its proto-language.

Stages of development
Toki Pona developed in 4 stages: Early Toki Pona, Classical Toki Pona, Late Toki Pona, and Modern Toki Pona. Each of these is discussed in detail below.

Early Toki Pona
The development of Early TP is the biggest stage of all. It saw the loss of all inflection bar the difference between null and n roots, and marking of the gerund on n-roots. There was thus a movement from 'X Ys Z' type structure to 'X does Ying to Z' type structure. 3 verbs remained pure: to be/do, to go, and to be (at/in/on). These three verbs were also the ones onto which person markers fused. For general uses, 'to' was replaced by 'going', the former dative preposition having become the 'to' in the standard phrase.