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This is in the spirit of the What is a Word/Phrase™ series started by JLee with a special brand of Phrase™ and Word™ puzzles.


If a word conforms to a special rule, I call it an SL Word™.
Find the rule using the examples.

SL Not SL
Take Give
Pine Oak
Mute Silence
Same Equal
Ale Beer
Ten Twenty
Tome Book
Awake Asleep
Awesome Awful
Joke Jokes

Here is the CSV Version:

SL,Not SL
Take,Give
Pine,Oak
Mute,Silence
Same,Equal
Ale,Beer
Ten,Twenty
Tome,Book
Awake,Asleep
Awesome,Awful
Joke,Jokes

Question: What is the rule which determins whether a word is an SL Word™?

Hint:

minimalism

Another hint:

of good

A third hint:

TP

A fourth hint:

constructed

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2 Answers 2

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Aha. I think Scratch--Cat has something rather like the right idea but seems to be missing the reason. An SL word is one that

could (on the basis of its spelling) be a word in the constructed language Toki Pona, one translation of whose name is "language of good", whose creator was Sonja Lang, and whose main design principle is one of minimalism.

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An SL word is what you get when...

you choose some of these syllables and put them together to make a word.
a i u e o
ka ki ku ke ko
sa si su se so
ta ti tu te to
na ni nu ne no
ha hi hu he ho
ma mi mu me mo
ya yi yu ye yo
ra ri ru re ro
wa wi wu we wo
la li lu le lo
ja ji ju je jo
ga gi gu ge go
za zi zu ze zo
da di du de do
ba bi bu be bo
pa pi pu pe po
n

The letters "C" and "V" are disaIIowed.

EDIT: What about the hints?

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  • $\begingroup$ What language is it? $\endgroup$ Feb 17 at 10:30
  • $\begingroup$ I think this is almost right, an SL Word must be rot13(n pbapngrangvba bs wncnarfr cebahapvngvbaf’ nycunorgvpny sbez). One might refer to sources like this one. Notice how the image suggests slightly different, say tokens, from those given in this answer. $\endgroup$
    – EsoJihun
    Feb 17 at 16:40
  • $\begingroup$ Still not sure about the hints though :P $\endgroup$
    – EsoJihun
    Feb 17 at 16:41
  • $\begingroup$ Almost certain that rot13(gurl pna or pbafgehpgrq hfvat uventnan, rkprcg sbe nyr (gurer vf ab yr fbhaq va Wncnarfr, Wncnarfr'f 'e' vf cebabhaprq hfvat xvaq bs n zvk orgjrra Ratyvfu'f 'y' naq 'e' fbhaqf)) $\endgroup$
    – Avi
    Feb 18 at 0:27
  • $\begingroup$ Just curious... why did you use capital Is instead of $\ell$ in disaLLowed? $\endgroup$
    – ACB
    Mar 25 at 13:00

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