Chapter 9 The particle system, Phi's backbone
Slot 2: refining a constituent
Slot 2 particles do not gather in one sentence-wide block. Each stands immediately before the word or phrase whose reference it changes.
lo: unquantified plural
lo marks more than one when no numeral or quantifier supplies quantity.
lo melu — friends
lo shiro — trees
mia lo melu lothea. — I love my friends.
A numeral or quantifier replaces lo: wi melu is two friends, ta shao shiro is three trees, and sheloi miona is many people. Forms such as lo wi melu say the quantity twice and are not grammatical.
nu: ordinal position
nu turns a cardinal numeral into a position.
nu ta lopia — the first child
nu wi philo — the second day
nu comes before the whole numeral, including a compound one: nu ta shao philo is the third day.
ko: focus
ko marks the constituent selected for contrast or correction.
ko mia thia nila. — I am the one who sees you.
mia ko lothea sano. — Love is the thing I know.
Focus points to the contrasted element. Context supplies the alternatives; ko does not have to list them.
mo and mo ko: comparison
mo forms a comparative quality. A phrase with sheo names the standard of comparison.
thepalu sheo shelira mo mioru nai. — The garden is more beautiful than the forest.
The fixed pair mo ko forms a superlative:
ha thepalu mo ko mioru nai. — This garden is the most beautiful.
Put mo in front of something countable and it compares amounts instead:
mia wei thia mo thena loa. — I give you more.
One particle, two jobs, and the noun decides which.
Comparison states a relation. Greater size, speed, or beauty carries no extra worth with it.
ha and ra: proximal and distal
ha locates a referent near the speaker or discourse centre; ra locates it farther away.
ha melu — this friend
ra melu — that friend
The same particles can be locative predicates with nai: mia ha nai. means "I am here," and shia ra nai. means "They are there."
ru, la, pe, wo: degree
Four particles share one position, immediately before the word they measure. Only one may stand there at a time, because a degree cannot be raised and lowered at once.
ru raises the degree and la lowers it.
ru mioru — very beautiful
la sulae — slightly warm
ha peloru ru mioru nai. — This flower is very beautiful.
phialu la sulae nai. — The water is slightly warm.
la says a quality is present in small measure. Denying it outright is ma, which is a different claim: la sulae is slightly warm, and ma sulae is not warm.
The other two measure a degree against what the moment asks rather than against a scale.
phialu pe sukaro nai. — The water is hot enough.
sulopa wo sukaro nai. — The soup is too hot.
pe says the degree meets the need and wo says it has gone past it. Both take their standard from the purpose at hand, so the same heat can be enough for a bath and too much for a mouth. Negation gives the missing corner: pe ma sukaro nai is not hot enough.
All four sit on the word underneath, and that word does not have to be a quality or an action. Phi names several states with nouns and gives them no adjective at all: nuhe is sadness, sukima fear, wiloru dizziness, tupeka burden. Their degrees arrive the same way.
mia ru nuhe phaelo. — I feel deep sadness.
Nothing forbids ru womu, very house. Nothing needs to. A house has no degree to raise, and the phrase stops making sense before any rule reaches it.
Degree is not comparison. ru mioru strengthens one description, while mo mioru measures it against another. And ru is not wo: a thing that is very hot may be exactly right for the work in hand, where wo says it has stopped being right.
we and li: addition and restriction
we adds a constituent to what the discourse has already established:
we lohau wile. — The dog plays too.
li restricts the claim to the constituent it marks:
li shia sano. — Only they know.
li restricts identity, not quantity. "Only three eggs" is stated as the exact count, or as a shortfall with henoi ma nai when insufficiency is the point. we and li do not stack on the same phrase.
ne: name
ne licenses the following atom as a proper designation:
ne keruko — keruko, a listed content word borne as a name
ne samira — samira, a productive name-form without a lexicon meaning
A productive onym is one lowercase token of two, three, or four legal Phi syllables. It follows ordinary phonotactics and does not duplicate a syllable that has an onset. A current lexicon form may be used as a name only when it is a content word. An unlisted form needs no historical check, and a four-syllable onym needs no special registry. The validator checks candidates with python3 scripts/validate_examples.py name FORM.
Formal and neutral Phi keeps ne at every mention. Conversation may omit it after the referent is established and while reference remains clear. A source name that does not fit the onym charter stays outside the Phi passage unless the bearer or naming community accepts an adapted Phi-form name.
Honorifics
The three honorifics follow ne and state the speaker's relationship to the named bearer:
samarks respect, often toward a mentor or elder.nimarks personal closeness.lemarks regard for a community role.
ne sa sulae, ne ni moli, and ne le siora name three different relations. None assigns universal rank to the bearer; each records how the speaker holds the relation.
Nesting Slot 2
Wider scope comes first:
we / li > ha / ra > lo / numeral > ko > degree > word
This gives ha lo melu (these friends), ra nu wi shiro (that second tree), ha mo ko mioru peloru (this most beautiful flower), and li ha lo melu (only these friends). The sequence is learned once, but a crowded phrase still takes effort to hear. When a stack begins to obscure its noun, another sentence is available.