Part 1
The frame before the deed
Every adverbial frame in Phi has one shape:
[relator] [dependent clause] [main clause]
The relator opens the frame, the dependent clause fills it, and the dependent clause's own verb closes it. No closing word exists for these frames, and none is needed: when the dependent verb has sounded, the frame is complete, and the next word begins the main clause. This is the opposite arrangement from the complement frames, whose tho, pho, and sho close them audibly; there, the boundary is a word, and here, the boundary is the frame's own final verb.
The set is closed at six: pheo (after), phoe (before), whau (while), lao (because), shai (although), and lila (in order to). Canon settles the inventory, and nothing outside it does this work.
01Two look-alikes that are not relators
Two words keep ending up in this family by mistake, and each has its own home.
lu opens a condition, but it is a Slot 0 particle, not a clause relator, and its grammar shows the difference: a lu condition is one complete sentence with its own period, and the consequence is another. lu pheralu lepa. lo mia mua womu meilo. is two sentences. A relator frame and its main clause are one.
tei is a preposition, not a clause relator. It stands over a noun phrase naming an endpoint, and no clause hides inside it:
mia tei howai thole.
1SG UNTIL evening practice.
Evening is a noun, not an event with a verb. The phrase sits where adjuncts sit, and the sentence has one clause.
Practicesort the openers
Say what each opening word is: a clause relator, the Slot 0 condition, or a preposition over a noun phrase.
lao pheralu to nai ruela wirua nai.lu thia naphe. mia towe phaelo.lo lopia tei howai wile.lila mia shonela mia theo.
Answers: 1 A clause relator: lao opens a reason clause whose final nai completes the frame before the main clause. 2 The Slot 0 condition: lu opens a complete sentence, and the consequence is a second sentence with its own period. 3 A preposition: tei howai is a phrase naming the endpoint of the children's playing, and the sentence has one clause. 4 A clause relator: lila opens the purpose, and shonela completes the frame before the reading begins.