17·loami

You have been able to give since chapter six. This chapter gives you the noun for what changes hands, loami (the gift, wearing the verb loa inside it), and the verb Phi may love best: phowe, to share. Nothing new in the grammar at all; only the household's economy of kindness, at full strength:

SceneI

ne sulae shua. ne siora we shua.sulae loami kolua.sulae wei phao loami loa.phao loami howela. phao nemo nai.

sulae arrives carrying a gift and gives it. Look at the word: loa sits whole inside loami, the giving inside the given thing, the way wapi flies inside the wing. The parent receives it and is grateful, which in Phi is a way of being, said with nai like calm or goodness.

SceneII

loami tomi nai.thiku tomi. welao tomi.phaomea. mea ne sulae.tomi mua wonepa nai. wheo tomi nila.

The gift is a pot (small, good). It joins the household the way gifts do here: admired first, used forever after.

SceneIII

phao nuora pharelo. lo mia nuora phowe.lopia wei siora sulopa loa.wheo wei sulae napa loa.theula miona nuola. we lohau nuola.misheko rihe. misheko we shua.

Sharing makes food available for use with others without requiring it to leave one holder for another. Here the parent cooks while the child serves the guest and the elder serves the friend. Everyone eats; the dog also eats, obviously. Then comes the day's true miracle, twice marked: the cat rises, and the cat also comes. Food is the only summons the cat answers.

SceneIV

sulaemea. lo mia nemo nai.phaolo mia we nemo nai.shero shua. ne sulae pao. ne siora pao.lopia wei siora thiku loami loa.

Thanks answer thanks: we are grateful; we also are grateful. At the gate, the child hands the visiting child a small gift of their own (a flower, of course), because that is what the garden is for, and because chapter six taught exactly this: some things gain meaning at each handing.