VN syllables (for 2% of syllables). Most roots (70%) are disyllabic; about 20% are monosyllables and 10% trisyllables. This is a common distribution, and similar to Polynesian. Phonotactics The following sequences are not allowed: *, nor may a syllable's final nasal occur before or in the same root. Proper nouns are usually converted into Toki Pona proper adjectives using a set of guidelines. The native, or even colloquial, pronunciation is used as the basis for the subsequent sound conversion. Thus, England or English become and John becomes . Allophony The nasal at the end of a syllable can be pronounced as any nasal stop, though it is normally assimilated to the following consonant. That is, it typically occurs as an before , or , as an before or , as an before , and as an before . Because of its small phoneme inventory, Toki Pona allows for extensive allophonic variation. For example, may be pronounced as well as , as or as well as , as as well as , and vowels may be either long or short. Writing systems Fourteen Latin letters, a e i j k l m n o p s t u w, are used to write the language. They have the same values as in the International Phonetic Alphabet: j sounds like English y (as in many Germanic and Slavic languages) and the vowels are like those of Spanish, Modern Greek, or Modern Hebrew. Capital initials are used to mark proper nouns, while Toki Pona roots are always written with lowercase letters, even when they start a sentence. Besides the Latin alphabet, which is the most common way of writing the language, many alternative writing systems have been developed for and adapted to Toki Pona. Most successful and widespread are two logographic writing systems, and . Both were included in the book Toki Pona: The Language of Good. sitelen pona The ('good/simple writing/drawing') writing system was devised as an alternative writing system by Lang herself, and first published in her book Toki Pona: The Language of Good in 2014. In it each word is represented by its own symbol. It has been described as "a hieroglyphic-like script that makes use of squiggles and other childlike shapes". Proper names are written inside a cartouche-like symbol using a series of symbols, where each symbol represents the first letter of its word. Symbols representing a single adjective