Toki Pona (in Toki Pona it means "good language" or "simple language") is a constructed (made-up) language. Sonja Lang (in past time "Sonja Elen Kisa"), a Canadian translator and linguist, made the language. It is based on simple ideas that are known to all cultures. It is not created to be an international auxiliary language (a language for communication between people speaking different languages). It is meant to test ideas about minimalism and pidgins. It is influenced by Taoist ideas. It has only 120 root words, although there is over 50,000 different possible combinations. Toki Pona relies very heavily on expressing ideas by using root words together. For example, "jan pona" means "friend" in Toki Pona (literally it means: "good person"). 