jo

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meaning

hold, carry, possess, contain, own

see also

lon, poki, lanpan

semantic space · lipamanka

jo is the act of holding, carrying, posessing, owning, or broadly having. The english word "have" tends to be pretty broad, and jo is no different, but the size of its semantic space differs between speakers. Some speakers will only use jo if an object is in someone's hand or they're holding it. Others will use jo for something as abstract as a word having sounds in it or a language having words in it. for some speakers, if I'm borrowing your book, you don't jo it anymore, I do, even if you own it. For other speakers, in that situation both you and I jo the book at the same time in different ways. When you use jo, you're drawing a metaphor between someone's relationship with an object and a world in which they're holding it in their hands. some people like to stretch this metaphor much farther than others.

ku translations

have100 possess95 carry90 contain75 own73 hold71 possession68 ownership67 consist42 include42 comprise41 grasp33 equip31 bring29 grip27

pu verbatim

  • VERB to have, carry, contain, hold

usage

core · 99% usage

found in pu

coined pre-pu

origin

Mandarin · 有 yǒu ‘have’

coined by jan Sonja

listen

kala Asi

jan Lakuse

sitelen pona

jo

perhaps a pictogram of a person pointing at themself or holding something

sitelen sitelen

jo sitelen sitelen

sitelen jelo

👜

sitelen Emosi

👜

ucsur

U+F1913

luka pona

gif · mp4