5 · mia nuwera
Two questions get their grammar in this chapter: whose, and where. Whose costs nothing. Put the owner directly before the owned, and you are done: mia nuwera, my bed; lopia nuwera, the child's bed. Where costs one small word: mua — in, at, on, which stands before the place the way every describing thing in Phi stands before what it describes. And the little ha from last chapter's door finally gets its name.
I
lopia nuwera thiku nai.
phao nuwera whalo nai.
wheo nuwera welao nai.
lopia nuwera welao nai.
phao nuwera welao nai.
| new word | say it | it means |
|---|---|---|
| nuwera | nu · we · ra | bed |
Three beds, three sizes of person, and all three beds good, because this is that kind of house. No word for "of," no marker, no apostrophe: the owner stands before the owned, and standing there is the whole grammar.
II
misheko mua nuwera nulae.
lohau mua ponu nulae.
lopia mua thepalu thalo.
wheo mua thepalu nai.
phao mua womu nai.
| new word | say it | it means |
|---|---|---|
| mua | mu · a | in, at, on |
| ponu | po · nu | door |
Everyone somewhere: the cat in a bed, the dog at the door, the child and the elder in the garden, the parent in the house. mua announces that a place is coming; the place arrives; then the sentence gets on with its verb.
III
sulopa mua tomi nai.
tomi mua wonepa nai.
nuora mua wonepa nai.
lopia sulopa nuola.
lohau mua wonepa nai. — tua, lohau.
| new word | say it | it means |
|---|---|---|
| sulopa | su · lo · pa | soup |
| tomi | to · mi | pot |
| wonepa | wo · ne · pa | table |
The soup is in the pot, the pot is on the table: one little mua covers in, at, and on, and the things themselves tell you which. The last line is the parent speaking, and the dog understands it perfectly.
IV
Now ha — here, and its twin ra — there.
lopia: wa misheko ha nai.
phao: tua. misheko ra nai.
lopia: wa misheko mua thepalu nai.
phao: tua. misheko mua womu nai.
lopia: misheko mua mia nuwera nulae.
| new word | say it | it means |
|---|---|---|
| ha | ha | here |
| ra | ra | there |
Is the cat here? No, there. In the garden? No, in the house. The last line the child speaks with the flat voice of someone who has lived with a cat before: in my bed. Look at how the sentence builds: mua announces a place, and the place is mia nuwera: whose-grammar nested inside where-grammar, each part announcing before delivering. You just read the deepest sentence in the primer so far without noticing.
Once more aloud, slower. Whose and where are yours now, and they cost you one new particle and a habit you already had.
The machinery, when you want it: possession is the manual's Part IV, chapter 11; here and there are chapter 13's deixis; place phrases are with the prepositions in Part IV.