= Rules for translating and style in Toki Pona =

Welcome to the Toki Pona translation of Haiku!

To achieve a consistent result, all translators have to respect a few rules.
For a language as context-dependent as Toki Pona, this is especially important.

== 1. Don't change the formatting ==
 All HTML tags used in the English Original, like <span class="menu">, <i>, <b>, as well as links etc. have to be used as well. Only the contents within these tags have to be translated.

== 2. Golden Rules of Toki Pona Translation for Haiku ==
1. We **DO** use lower case in all cases except for proper nouns and loan words. Yes, even at the beginning of phrases.
2. We do **NOT** tokiponize app names, loan words or proper nouns/monikers in general. Names of countries and languages use the Toki Pona version though (e.g. toki Tosi = German). This includes very tech-specific terms like file formats (sitelen Bitmap) or units (nanpa Byte).
4. We **DO** use words from the Official Toki Pona Dictionary (''ku'') whereever applicable.
5. Multiple variations for the same lexicon entry are **fine to use** interchangeably based on sentence flow or string length limitations (e.g. sin/namako, lukin/oko)

== 3. Grammar Conventions ==
1. Progressive: li <verb>\\// Example: "searching..." > "li alasa..."
2. Lonely transitive verbs: <verb> e\\// Example: "contains" > "jo e"
3. Imperatives/Choices: o <word>\\// Example: "Continue" > "o pali" or "Delete" > "o weka"    >> This only applies when the action results in direct action, like in "Delete". Otherwise, like in "OK", just write the word.

== 4. Numbers, dates, times ==
1. In general, we use numerics, not the cumbersome counting system (luka luka luka luka luka... no.). So, "3 files in this directory" gets translated as "lipu 3 lon poki ni"
2. The date format is as follows: "t.sk. #2020; t.s. #22; t.m. #3" (or long: "tenpo suno #22 pi tenpo mun #3 pi tenpo sike #2020" represents the 22nd of March, 2020. If that's too long for a string, go ahead and use standard YYYY/MM/DD formats.
3. The time format is similar: "tenpo 8 pini" = 8 minutes; "tenpo 11:52" = 11:52 AM (we use a 24 hour clock, so tenpo 22:52 = 10:52pm)

== 5. Terminology ==
You can find a list of established terminology at https://dev.haiku-os.org/wiki/i18n/tok/Terminology . Please always refer to that wiki page before translating something non-trivial. It helps using CTRL+F.