Chapter 11 Nouns and their world
The words of the body
A child can point to a knee. A caller describing pain cannot, so Phi needs the nouns. The base vocabulary provides a practical body map: broad regions, visible parts, common organs, and the substances that daily care cannot sensibly leave to mime. It is still not an anatomy atlas. When exact anatomy matters, its source term stays beside the Phi account.
From crown to sole
The head:
| Phi | Gloss |
|---|---|
| koma | head |
| meraku | brain |
| komeri | forehead |
| menoa | face |
| mirae | eye |
| shonui | ear |
| nophae | nose |
| meshoi | cheek |
| phulae | mouth |
| phimei | lip |
| kathoru | jaw |
| lathoe | tongue |
| kulai | tooth |
| whila | hair |
| nolue | neck |
| shapelu | throat |
The trunk and limbs:
| Phi | Gloss |
|---|---|
| talua | shoulder |
| pelio | arm |
| manuwe | hand |
| thumai | finger |
| tipika | fingernail |
| pharoe | chest |
| mokura | belly |
| norapi | waist |
| rokai | back |
| rokili | spine |
| kanomi | pelvis |
| lushe | hip |
| peshuma | buttocks |
| tolae | leg |
| kunoa | knee |
| paloi | foot |
| kiparu | joint |
The living interior, and the whole:
| Phi | Gloss |
|---|---|
| korua | heart |
| phuwai | lung |
| lomura | liver |
| kumoe | stomach |
| nulomi | guts |
| lorika | blood |
| tholau | bone |
| kuroi | muscle |
| mashuri | flesh |
| hisae | skin |
| weloni | body |
These nouns describe conditions, tissues, or fluids that speakers regularly locate in a body:
| Phi | Gloss |
|---|---|
| kipona | pain |
| siwe | sweat |
| suhari | saliva |
| tomewu | urine |
| mokathi | faeces |
| nuwesu | mucus |
| lomeki | fat |
| sunai | health |
| puro | strength |
The registry carries whalo thumai (big finger, thumb), mokura kesho (belly-middle, navel), paloi thumai (foot-finger, toe), mirae hisae (eye-skin, eyelid), and nophae phae (nose-opening, nostril). Once kiparu supplies the joint, three more landmarks settle into place: pelio kesho kiparu (arm-middle joint, elbow), manuwe kiparu (hand-joint, wrist), and paloi kiparu (foot-joint, ankle). The pattern is useful, and the wrist and ankle have the courtesy to remember it together.
The registry also keeps nolika whila (animal hair, fur) and mirae phialu (eye-water, tears). A breath is whunei's event noun, a cut is kati's, and possession is bare juxtaposition: lopia weloni (the child's body), mia korua (my heart).
The map stops before named vessels, nerves, glands, and the finer structures of each organ. The Medical module adds words for care and clinical relations; exact biomedical nomenclature keeps its source identity. Sexual and reproductive anatomy has a separate scenario-led vocabulary effort because it must work for self-description, consent, health, and varied bodies rather than treating one body as the unnamed standard.
States are worn
Bodily states that are adjectives predicate with nai, like any adjective: kumoli (hungry), kishu (thirsty), pelui (cold), shorui (weary), mokela (sick), towe (well).
mia kumoli nai.
1SG hungry be.
wa thia mokela nai.
Q 2SG sick be.
The caring question has a caring answer, and the imperative gives it:
no wei shia phialu loa.
IMP DAT 3SG water give.
Sensations are felt
Sensations and feelings that are nouns are objects of phaelo (feel). The same grammar works for shea (peace), nuhe (sadness), and the bodily words below:
| Phi | Gloss |
|---|---|
| kipona | pain |
| sikoru | itch |
| numaro | numbness |
| tiphori | tingling |
| wiloru | dizziness |
This pattern will also run through the journal practice of chapter 23:
mia kipona phaelo.
1SG pain feel.
A body part locates the feeling with mua in the ordinary preposition-phrase position:
mia mua rokai kipona phaelo.
1SG LOC back pain feel.
The same frame gives a small sensation its proper place without promoting it to a diagnosis:
mia mua pelio sikoru phaelo.
1SG LOC arm itch feel.
Numbness, tingling, and dizziness are likewise reports from the person who feels them. Weakness, loss of movement, observed imbalance, and sickness remain separate facts; a helpful word should not arrive carrying a medical chart under its arm.
So the healer's question is:
thia kua kipona phaelo.
2SG where pain feel.
One sentence Phi refuses: mia kipona nai, I am pain. The state you wear takes nai; the sensation passing through you takes phaelo; and a person has never been their pain.
Small bodily events
Several ordinary acts need no clinical detour. Two take the person or thing at the mouth as an object:
| Phi | Gloss | Kept separate from |
|---|---|---|
| lisaku | lick | tasting a flavour |
| pumari | suck | drinking or swallowing |
nolika mia manuwe lisaku.
animal 1SG hand lick.
Five others are usually intransitive:
| Phi | Gloss | What the verb says |
|---|---|---|
| nishoku | sneeze | air bursts through the nose and mouth |
| ketumi | hiccup | the breath catches after a sudden contraction |
| rumeka | belch | gas rises and leaves through the mouth |
| murase | swell | a body or material becomes larger or thicker |
| kesiri | shrink | a body or material becomes smaller |
The ordinary event-noun rule applies to all five verbs. Causes stay in their own clauses. A swollen joint may follow an injury or inflammation, but murase reports the change before deciding why it happened.
mia kiparu murase.
1SG joint swell.
The healing house
Healing has a small base family: nepha (medicine), theala (heal), talome (restore), theama (care), and numelo (nurture). The Medical and Bodily Care module adds narrower remedies and care relations for speakers who need them.
nepha mia theala.
medicine 1SG heal.
Recovery ends where it began, in the ordinary words:
mia weloni therilu.
1SG body rest.
mia towe nai.
1SG well be.
towe is the state, sunai (health) the condition beneath it, wolu (healthy) the description of whatever holds that condition, a person, a forest, a community.
Unwell, never bad
The lexicon refuses generic bad, and the sickroom shows why a more exact word helps. A person may be mokela (sick), a tool pukeri (damaged), or an act peloma (harmful). These are conditions that can be described and answered, not one verdict spread over everything.
Grammar does not provide a bedside manner. It does, however, keep the person as subject in mia mokela nai and the pain as an object in mia kipona phaelo. A careful speaker can then ask where it hurts, offer water, and listen to the answer without turning the person into the condition.