Phi pamphlets — Part 7: Market day

One scene, everything at once. The primer's market chapter gave this pamphlet its opening egg-count; here is a full market morning, worked as continuous practice: exact quantities, estimates, classifications, positions, and one calculation, braided the way a real day braids them. Read it aloud first; the notes follow.

01The walk in

lopia nua phao kau silawo thalo. lopia lo powea kolua.

child COM parent ALL village walk. child PL egg carry.

(The child walks with the parent to the village. The child carries the eggs.)

ta lipha powea. wi lipha powea. ta shao lipha powea. ta shao ta lipha powea.

one LIFE.CLF egg. two LIFE.CLF egg. one three-group LIFE.CLF egg. one three-group one LIFE.CLF egg.

(One egg. Two eggs. Three eggs. Four eggs.)

phina neparu leo silawo nai.

FEW cloud ABOVE village be.

(A few clouds stand above the village.)

The count is exact because eggs in a basket are countable and the child is practicing; the clouds take phina because nobody audits a sky. Two quantities, two honesties, ten steps apart.

02At the stalls

wi himo piru mua silawo nai. nu ta piru lo noru wisola.

two HUM.CLF trader LOC village be. ORD one trader PL bowl exchange.

(Two traders are at the village. The first trader exchanges bowls.)

wia themo noru. — ta shao wi themo noru.

how many THING.CLF bowl. — one three-group two THING.CLF bowl.

(How many bowls? — Five bowls.)

lopia wei piru ta shao lipha powea loa. piru wei lopia ta themo noru loa.

child DAT trader one three-group LIFE.CLF egg give. trader DAT child one THING.CLF bowl give.

(The child gives the trader three eggs. The trader gives the child one bowl.)

The trader's answer to wia is exact because the participants need the count for this exchange. Note the classifiers marking different categories in one scene: eggs travel as lipha, the bowl arrives as themo, and the two people around the exchange were introduced with himo. The choices foreground those categories but do not by themselves establish that the exchange is fair or respectful.

03The remainder, portioned

lopia ta lipha powea phelu. lo mia mua womu wi shao ta himo miona nai.

child one LIFE.CLF egg hold. PL 1SG LOC home two three-group one HUM.CLF person be.

(The child holds one egg. At home we are seven people.)

ta lipha powea nela wi shao ta himo miona phanoi. mu lipha powea kelai. ta lipha powea therilu. henoi ma nai.

one LIFE.CLF egg COORD two three-group one HUM.CLF person portion. zero LIFE.CLF egg equals. one LIFE.CLF egg rest. ENOUGH NEG be.

(One egg divided among seven people results in zero whole eggs for each, with one egg remaining. It is not enough.)

phao seniku. phao sha su lo mia sulopa kealo sho haolu.

parent smile. parent QUOT.COMP OPT PL 1SG soup create QUOT.COMP.CLOSE speak.

(The parent smiles. The parent says: "Let us make soup.")

The arithmetic supplies an integer quotient and remainder; henoi ma nai then makes a separate sufficiency judgment. Dividing one egg among seven people would require fractions or a practical transformation, so the household chooses soup. The calculation does not make that choice for them.

04The walk home

shero shua. rei silero.

night come. eighty-one-group star.

(Night comes. A great many stars.)

lopia sui philo ta shao wi lipha powea to wisola. lopia mua korua ta themo noru phelu.

child DUR day one three-group two LIFE.CLF egg PST exchange. child LOC heart one THING.CLF bowl hold.

(Across the day the child traded five eggs. In their heart they hold one bowl.)

The day ends with an exact memory of what was exchanged and a scale estimate for a sky that nobody counted. The pairing (ta shao wi for the eggs, bare rei for the stars) is two different claims, one exact and one approximate, each precise about exactly as much as the child knows. If the pamphlet leaves one pairing in your pocket, let it be that one.

05Drill: your own market

Write the scene's skeleton for your own errand (real or invented) in eight to twelve sentences: one exact count whose difference affects the event, one contextually justified phina or soli, one optional classifier choice you can explain, one nu position, one exchange with wei … loa, and one quantity expressed without a number. Read it aloud the next day and check each number against what you knew and what the errand required: did it earn its exactness, or wear its about?