Part 5 · complex — Chapter 17 · coordination

Addition: we

The three conjunctions of this chapter join elements inside one sentence. Phi has one more way of adding, and the primer teaches it at the household door: the particle we, which marks the following element as joined to something already said: English "also," "too." It is a Slot 2 particle (ch9 §5), standing immediately before what it adds, and the corpus uses it where nela cannot reach: across a sentence boundary, when a new sentence repeats an old one with a single substitution.

melu shua. we thiku miona shua. — A friend comes. A small person comes too.

lo lopia mua thepalu wile. we lohau wile. — The children play in the garden. The dog plays too.

ne sulae shua. ne siora we shua. — sulae comes. siora comes too.

Where it stands

Before the added element, as Slot 2 always does, and the primer shows two placements within two chapters. When the newcomer is the whole news, we opens the clause and stands before the subject: we lohau wile. Once the newcomer has just been named, we may stand before the shared verb instead: ne siora we shua, siora also-comes. In both, the sameness is announced before the new instance is delivered, which is the only way this language ever tells you anything.

we versus nela

nela coordinates equals inside one sentence: shiro nela peloru, trees and flowers, one statement holding both. we adds an echo across sentences: something stood, and here is one more of it. If English would say "X and Y," reach for nela; if English would say "Y too," reach for we. The two never compete for the same position, because nela stands between its elements and we stands before its addition, each, as ever, announcing exactly the relationship it is about to create.