Part 2
Case from position
One pair of sentences carries the whole lesson:
mia thia nila.
1SG 2SG see.
thia mia nila.
2SG 1SG see.
Same two words, traded places, opposite meaning. Where English swaps I for me, Phi moves the unchanged word to a different seat. Subject first, object second, and the form never bends: that is the entire case system, and it is already yours from chapter 10.
01The four seats
| Role | Phi | English |
|---|---|---|
| subject | mia thia nila. | I see you. |
| object | thia mia nila. | You see me. |
| prepositional object | thia wei mia shua. | You come to me. |
| possessor | mia shelu welao nai. | My book is good. |
The third row puts mia after a preposition, and the fourth puts it before a noun it possesses. Four grammatical relationships, one form, position doing all the work.
02The possessor needs company
The possessor row rewards a careful ear. A bare pronoun opening a predicate clause is the subject, so:
mia lohau nai.
1SG dog be.
That sentence says what it says. The possessive reading arrives only when the structure forces it, and two structures do. Ownership as a claim of its own uses phelu:
mia lohau phelu.
1SG dog hold.
And a possessor inside a larger phrase reads cleanly because the sentence has somewhere else to put the subject meaning:
mia lohau welao nai.
1SG dog good be.
No ambiguity survives: "I am a good dog" would order the words mia welao lohau nai., so the grammar has already separated the readings for you. Hear the two shapes a few times and the right one starts arriving unbidden.
Practicetrade the seats
- I know them.
- They know me.
- You come to me.
- My book is good. Then say what
mia shelu nai.claims instead.
Answers: 1 mia shia sano. 2 shia mia sano. 3 thia wei mia shua. 4 mia shelu welao nai. And mia shelu nai. is the subject reading, "I am a book": a fine sentence for a story, and a reminder that the first bare pronoun of a predicate clause has claimed the subject's seat.