Part 2: Climbing the scale
Four scale units ladder upward by threes: shao (3), phoi (9), lau (27), rei (81). Each is a countable noun (you count groups the way you count baskets) and each step up trades precision for reach, exactly as the system intends.
Nine and its neighborhood
ta phoi one nine-group (9) ta phoi ta one nine-group one (10) ta phoi ta shao wi one nine-group one three-group two (14 — a nine, a three, and two) wi phoi wi shao two nine-group two three-group (24)
The reading habit from Part 1 scales: largest unit first, then the remainder, decomposed the same way. wi phoi wi shao is two nines and two threes: hear the shape (18 + 6) before you hear the sum (24), and soon you will hear both at once.
The full ladder
| Phi | Composition | Value |
|---|---|---|
ta phoi wi shao ta | 9 + 6 + 1 | 16 |
wi phoi ta | 18 + 1 | 19 |
wi phoi wi shao wi | 18 + 6 + 2 | 26 |
ta lau | 27 | 27 |
ta lau ta phoi | 27 + 9 | 36 |
wi lau | 54 | 54 |
ta rei | 81 | 81 |
ta rei ta lau ta phoi ta shao ta | 81 + 27 + 9 + 3 + 1 | 121 |
That last row is legal, exact, and long enough to make the system's point. Nothing breaks; composition runs as far as you care to push it. But every unit you climb adds a clause's worth of breath, and somewhere past ta lau a Phi speaker hears the language asking a quiet question: do you need this number, or do you need its size? Part 5 is about answering honestly. This part is about being able to pay the full price when the count truly matters.
Decomposition drills
Production is the harder direction: take a quantity, find its groups, largest first.
Worked: 22. One nine fits twice (wi phoi is 18) leaving 4: ta shao ta. So: wi phoi ta shao ta. Check the shape aloud: two nines, a three, a one.
Worked: 30. Past 27, so start at lau: ta lau leaves 3, ta shao. So: ta lau ta shao.
Now yours (answers in Part 9's key): 11, 17, 21, 25, 28, 33, 45, 60.
Reading at tempo
The pamphlet's standing exercise, borrowed from the evidentiality drills: read each line at speaking pace and say the value before the line ends.
ta phoi wi wi phoi ta shao ta lau ta wi shao wi ta lau ta phoi wi shao wi wi lau ta phoi
(11, 21, 28, 8, 44, 63.) When the fifth line resolves as fast as the fourth, the ladder is yours. Until then, the child on the village road is ahead of you, and she is counting eggs.