Chapter 13 Pronouns and reference
Forming plurals
The plural particle lo stands before a singular pronoun just as it stands before an unquantified noun.
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| first | mia (I, me) | lo mia (we, us) |
| second | thia (you) | lo thia (you all) |
| third | shia (another, it) | lo shia (they, them) |
In clauses
lo mia shea lothea. — We love peace.
wa lo thia shea nai. — Are you all at peace?
lo shia to shua. — They arrived.
mia lo thia whaline. — I thank you all.
lo mia lo shia nila. — We see them.
The first lo belongs to the subject and the second to the object. Position keeps the two phrases apart.
Who belongs to we
lo mia does not grammatically distinguish a group that includes the addressee from one that excludes them. Context may settle the membership; when it does not, the speaker can name the participants or state the contrast in another clause.
mia nela thia — you and I
lo mia wepu. thia ma wepu. — We go. You do not go.
The second example explicitly excludes the addressee from the group meant by lo mia in that exchange. The pronoun alone would not.
Three singular forms plus lo cover the personal inventory; everyone who will ever stand in a Phi sentence can already be pointed to with them. That regularity is easy to learn. Tracking who belongs to a plural group remains the ordinary work of conversation.