Chapter 16 Evidentiality, or knowing how we know
Reported ti
ti marks information received from another source, whether heard or read.
shia to ti wepu. — They reportedly left.
lo miona to ti naphe. — People helped, according to a report I received.
ha shelira mioru ti nai. — This forest is beautiful, I am told.
The particle states provenance without preserving exact words and without rating the source. A careful scientific report, a friend's message, and an unverified rumour can all reach the speaker through ti. The surrounding account identifies which one.
Report and quotation
ti marks the source of a proposition. The frame sha ... sho encloses exact Phi wording:
melu sha mia wepu sho to haolu.
friend QUOT.COMP 1SG go QUOT.COMP.CLOSE PST speak.
shia to ti wepu. reports that they left without claiming the source's wording. A tha ... tho clause can report fuller content when the proposition itself needs to be stated.
Transmission and responsibility
Using ti avoids claiming direct witness or personal inference. The speaker still chooses what to repeat. When reliability matters, another clause can name the source, date, document, or chain of transmission, and the exact record remains beside Phi when its identity matters.
General knowledge need not carry ti merely because the speaker learned it from someone. sileta ru whalo nai. can be an ordinary assertion that the sun is very large. Reportative marking belongs when received provenance is part of the present claim.
For ti, the tongue tip makes a dental closure and releases into high front i. That brief form is easy to pass along, but the sound makes no promise about how much thought transmission required. The report still belongs to the source and to the person choosing to repeat it.