Complementizers and embedded clauses in Phi

Say tha aloud, then tho. The first ends with the jaw dropped open on a; the second ends with the lips rounding shut on o. Phi builds its clause brackets out of that gesture. Three pairs open an inner thought on -a and close it on -o: tha/tho for statements, pha/pho for yes-or-no questions, sha/sho for someone's exact words. Beside them stands whu, the opener that lets a whole clause describe a noun and lets the noun itself do the closing. Seven words, one gesture, and a listener always hears where a thought inside a thought begins and ends.

The definitions live in manual chapter 19. What this pamphlet adds is room to practice: why the closers exist, each pair in depth, the errors English habits invite, and exercises with an answer key. The relative clauses pamphlet gives whu a treatment of its own; here it appears where its closer-free design explains the others.

Embedding is how one mind carries another in speech. I understand that you feel that the friend is well: three people stand inside that one sentence, and Phi marks every boundary between them, so no one's thought blurs into anyone else's. The pairs were built for that care.

This pamphlet assumes the particle system in manual chapter 9, the sentence shapes of chapter 10, and tense marking from chapter 14. It is a companion to manual Part V, chapter 19.

To speak of what we know, we must first mark where knowing begins and ends.