Chapter 13 Pronouns and reference
The reciprocal wiso
wiso occupies the object position and says that members of a plural subject act upon one another.
lo mia wiso lothea. — We love each other.
lo thia wiso naphe. — You all help each other.
lo shia wiso sano. — They know one another.
The reciprocal does not specify a complete all-to-all pattern in a large group. Context decides whether every member acts toward every other member, people form pairs, or the relation is mutual across the group in some other relevant way.
A plural subject is required
wiso brings no plurality of its own. The subject must already be plural through lo or coordination:
lo mia wiso nila. — We see each other.
mia nela thia wiso lothea. — You and I love each other.
A singular mia wiso nila is not grammatical because one participant cannot supply the reciprocal relation.
Reflexive and reciprocal
miso returns an action to each actor; wiso carries it between actors:
lo mia miso nila. — We see ourselves.
lo mia wiso nila. — We see each other.
The contrast matters most when the plural subject is already established and only the short object pronoun changes.
Sound family and use
The opening wi is also Phi's word for two, a useful mnemonic for mutual action. It is not a claim that every reciprocal event contains exactly two participants. Final so links the form audibly with miso.
lo mia wiso naphe. — We help each other.
lo mia wiso thumela. — We teach each other.
lo mia wiso whaline. — We thank each other.
Reciprocal grammar reports the direction of the action, and the examples above show where it points most often: help, teaching, thanks, passed both ways.