Part 4 · grammar — Chapter 12 · numbers

Approximation: the honest quantities

A scale unit standing alone, with no digit before it, means about that many:

shao philo — some three days

phoi miona — nine or so people

lau shiro — a twenty-seven of trees: many

rei silero — an eighty-one of stars: countless

This is not sloppiness; it is the system's center of gravity. Beyond ta lau (twenty-seven), exact counting in Phi becomes long-winded on purpose, and the language expects you to step up a unit and round. lau quantities are how Phi says many; rei quantities are how it says beyond counting. A speaker always can be exact (the composition never breaks), but the grammar makes honesty about magnitude cheaper than false precision.

The journal practice (chapter 23) leans on this: nu ta shao philo, the third day, when the count matters; shao philo, some three days, when it does not. Most days, it does not.