Part 2: Witness (hi)

hi claims the most a Phi speaker can claim: my senses met the event itself. The manual (ch16) draws the boundary; this chapter walks it until you stop needing the map.

What it buys you

Since unmarked speech already implies ordinary firsthand confidence, hi is never grammatically required. It is spent only on the occasions when witnessing is the point:

suliwa mua phitura nai. mia suliwa hi nila.
snake LOC well be. 1SG snake DIR see.
(A snake is at the well. I saw it with my own eyes.)

The child at the well does not say hi to be grammatical. The child says hi because a snake at the well is news, and news demands its pedigree. Compare the same fact unmarked: mia suliwa nila. True, but flat, a remark, not a testimony. The primer's gloss on this is worth keeping whole: that is the strongest thing a Phi speaker can say about anything, and the language spends it carefully.

Where witnessing ends

Every sense counts (sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell), but the sense must meet the event, not its traces:

mia lohau hi hea.
1SG dog DIR hear.
(I heard the dog — my own ears.)

mia sulopa hi thorima.
1SG soup DIR taste.
(I tasted the soup myself.)

But the wet ground is not the rain, the empty room is not the leaving, and the trail in the earth is not the snake. The moment your claim outruns your senses by even one step of reasoning, hi becomes a false pedigree and ke is the honest particle. The elder at the well models the discipline exactly. The elder sees the trail, sees no snake, and says ke, never hi:

mia suliwa ma nila. mia ruela mua muila nila.
1SG snake NEG see. 1SG path LOC earth see.
(I do not see the snake. I see the trail in the earth.)

Notice what the elder marks and what the elder leaves bare. The two seeings are unmarked: ordinary present perception needs no badge. The conclusion, when it comes, is what carries ke. Marking discipline is placement discipline: the evidential goes on the claim, not on the perceptions that support it.

hi under tense

Witness marking combines freely with time. Past witness is testimony; future witness is commitment:

shia to hi wepu.
3SG PST DIR go.
(They left — I watched them go.)

mia so hi nila.
1SG FUT DIR see.
(I will see it myself.)

The second form is rarer and stronger than it looks: it promises presence. A speaker who says so hi is declining to rely on reports in advance.

Drill: spend or save

For each situation, decide: unmarked, or hi? There is no single right answer: there is a right reasoning. Say your sentence aloud, then check your reasoning against the note.

1. You are asked where the dog is. You are looking at the dog.
2. A dispute: someone claims your friend never came to the garden. You were there when she came.
3. You mention to your household that the soup is warm.
4. The child claims a snake is at the well. You went and saw it too.

Notes: 1: unmarked; present perception, nothing at stake (lohau mua thepalu nai.). 2: spend it; this is testimony (sulae to hi shua. — she came, I witnessed it). 3: unmarked; table talk (sulopa sulae nai.). 4: spend it; you are adding a second witness to news (mia suliwa hi nila.), and two hi claims are how a household verifies.