Papisa-samama is what might be called a 'micro language', that is, it's a language built from very few elements but designed to convey a rich meaning.

Papisa-samama is inspired by the ideas of Zen, simplicity, beauty and quiet reflection.

It has only six consonants and two vowels, contributing to a lexicon of just 120 words:

It has only 12 sounds:

'an' and 'am' act as modifiers; 'an' indicates a negative, 'am' is used at the beginning of a word to indicate 'very.'
'ki' indicates the past tense, 'ka' indicates future tense at the end of a phrase or sentence.


Therefore, the only 'letters' used for all words are: ma, mi, ta, ti, sa, si, pa, pi!

Papisa-samama is a zero copula language.

Phonology: All vowels are short. a = æ as in cat. i = I as in sit

In spite of the fact that it has so few elements, there is a sophisticated number system based on Roman Numerals. See the page named Numbers and Colours  in Papisa-samama

Papisa-samama can be written as a symbolic language, like Chinese. The symbols equating to the sounds are:

Papisa-samama's vocabluary is based on dualities. For example, can is 'mapa', cannot is 'anmapa.' (Note the prefix 'an' to show 'cannot' negates 'can.') This is how the language can convey rich meaning through so few elements.

To form new word meanings, individual words can be joined together. Therefore, enlightenment might be translated as patima-tasama-simi, that is, deep-thought-light. Papisa-samama encourages creative ways of joining the root words together to convey richer meanings. When speaking Papisa-samama, the first syllable is stressed in order to clarify the meaning.

© Paul Freeman (2011). E-mail me here