A Youtuber guy called Arpee9216 thinks his 18 word language called Puna can actually become a global language like Esperanto.

On his website:
"Puna (good-language) is a language invented for global communication. It consists of 18 words and each word is 1 syllable. The language consists of only 18 words because if a language is to be global there should be as few words as possible to memorize. There are only 9 phonemes/letters because it is important for it to be as easy to pronounce as possible. In Puna, there are no words for complexities. Each complex word is build from smaller roots. This language also focuses on the positives in life. In order to say "bad" in Puna, you have to put the word "nu" which means "not" with the word "pu" which means "good". The language is completely contextual. If you are with someone and you say "ka", it could mean that it is "sunny", "bright", or "hot". That is an example of how important context is in this language. Most people can learn up to 10 words a day. Within a few days, you should be speaking fluent Puna. Avoid the stress of complexity, avoid the fear of negativity, and communicate with the world."

All the 18 words:

negative, not, no, opposite, question particle (when used at end of sentence): nu

science, logic, understand, knowledge, wisdom, know, believe, sense (feel, touch, taste, see, smell): ki

place, location, space, area, here, there: lu

living thing, animal, human, spirit, life, live: ni

energy, energize, strong, power, powerful, freedom, inspire, confident, free (of control): pi

seed, nut, egg, start, beginning, initial, first, root, origin, source, parent, God: ma

work, active, activate, business, labor, do, act, deed, action, create, make, build: pa

trade, buy, sell, give, take, get, receive, release, send, have, hold, maintain, keep: ku

way, move, go, come, time, period, mobile, motion, direction, path, road, method, skill, technique: mu

subject, verb, object, clause, separator: li

desire, want, need, require, pray for, wish for, wish, prayer: la

good, well, positive, healthy, improve, heal, help, support, benefit, advantage, simple, easy: pu

different, other, edit, change: tu

up, tall, high, heaven, sky, spiritual, formal, religious, religion, spiritual path: ta

sound, voice, noise, talk, say, word, name, music, play (instrument), language: na

light, bright, fire, bright, cook, hot, heat: ka

water, liquid, drink, clean, wash, sauce, wet, aqueous, soup: mi

plant, grass, tree, herb, vegetable, food, fruit, mushroom, medicine: ti

I've seen it before. Until he actually translates a large piece into that language, I don't see its value.

So, "nupu" means "bad." OK, I will consent that new poo certainly isn't good --but isn't a language with 18 words kind of ridiculous? And like Rogir said (sorta): Show me the money! Any idiot can pick out 18 monosyllables and assign a string of meanings to them. But we need some signs that it is at least somewhat practical.

Also, how is Toki Pona doing these days?

Well, I have to agree with Rogir. Toki Pona is pretty much useless for anything practical, and it has >100 words. I can't see how this could really be useful.

The thing about an international language is that it has to be good for more than asking for food and making friends. You have to be able to share knowledge. I can't see any real way to pass on anything worth knowing using Puna.

Arpee9216 also made Bon Wen, a language with over 200 words. I eventually switched to Esperanto because it's much easier to express yourself precisely with Esperanto. Put Puna makes even Toki Pona and Bon Wen look like natural languages. In Bon Wen, I could write a little bit about Bon Wen itself but in Puna I can't even say "I" or "me", until Arpee tells us how to say "I" or "me" (still waiting). Currently, I'm supporting Esperanto, because it has a (relatively) few words (e.g. bona - good; malbona - bad) AND you can express yourself without ambiguity (e.g. ŝanĝi - to change; ŝanĝo - a change).

Thanks, that's interesting, but I agree, 18 word seems too few (anyway for international komunication, and even for "simplified" communication). 18 word can be learned and mastered within a day, one can spend a couple of more days to learns 100 of words and multiply his own possibilities.

ku=trade, buy, sale, give, take... : when you speak to someone, how to guess that ku is give or take? even the context is not enough (except with a motion).

I do like Arpee's language building projects though, even if I wouldn't consider them useful (spare bon wen, but yes this 18 word language is more a theoretical experiment I think rather than a practical attempt to dislodge Latin and the Latinids as the language of science, the church, history, art and everything else worth thinking about).

Anyway, Arpee's pretty cool, and while I wouldn't learn this language I have to say "good on 'im" for his efforts to further explore by practice the world of languages. I've attempted to create a theoretical conlang with A, E, I, O and U, with the basic stops and nasals, with a strict (C)V single syllable word structure. I gave up, coz even though I feel its possible, it's just heck on earth trying to go through all the possibilities and sort things out.

+1 to cegereid. Arpee'language has the advantage to be easy to pronounce for a very large proportion of the world's population: alphabet is only: k, t, p, m, n, a, i, u. I think there are languages with only i and a as vowel, so still Puna is not straightforward for every population, and I have a doubt for m and n. But that is the idea behind Puna .

Well if they only have one extra vowel to deal with I'm pretty sure "u" isn't going to be too bigger burden

Anyway I think p/b, t/d/k/g/, m, a and i are the virtually universal sounds. It wouldn't surprise me if a langauge based on these sounds could be spoken by dolphins - with simple enough grammar (assuming that their purported delphinic-languages have significantly differing grammar that anything other than simple might blow everyone's minds). (this is further based on the assumption that dolphins actually do on occaision mimic human words like they're said to have done before by some scientists).

I think s/z/ŝ/ž can be added to the list