23 · lu
If. lu opens a condition, which (being a modifier of everything after it) comes first, its own small sentence, with the consequence following as another: lu [condition]. [consequence]. And for conditions that are wishes and never-weres, lu takes he, the particle of the unreal. Planning around weather, which is what village planning is:
I
lu pheralu lepa. lo mia mua womu therilu.
lu sorae phelo loa. lo mia kau luphore wepu.
lu howeli shua. lo mia mua womu nuora pilewa.
| new word | say it | it means |
|---|---|---|
| lu | lu | (at the front: if) |
If rain, we rest indoors; if sun, the river; if wind, we cook. Three plans for three skies, each condition announced before its consequence. You could not put the if second in Phi if you tried, and after eighteen chapters of announce-then-deliver, why would you try?
II
lopia: lu pheralu ma lepa. wa lo mia kau luphore wepu.
phao: lia. lu pheralu ma lepa. lo mia wepu.
kelua shua. pheralu ma lepa.
lo mia kau luphore wepu.
If it does not rain, may we go? If it does not rain, we go. Morning comes; it does not rain; they go. A conditional is a door held open, and sometimes the weather simply walks through it.
III
lopia mua luphore wile. lohau wishe.
lopia: lu he mia pelori nai. mia wapi.
lopia: lu he mia shalu nai. mia mua phialu nulae.
| new word | say it | it means |
|---|---|---|
| he | he | (after lu: if, but unreal) |
Riverbank daydreams: lu he marks the ifs that are not and will not be. If I were a bird, I would fly; if I were a fish, I would sleep in the water. The unreal particle costs one syllable, and buys the entire kingdom of the imagination.
IV
lopia: lu he thia pelori nai. wa thia wapi.
phao: lia. mia wapi. mia kau sorae wapi.
lohau lue phialu shua.
If you were a bird, would you fly? To the sun itself, says the parent, who has been saving that answer for years. And the dog exits the river and shakes, in the universal language (the only weather anyone did not plan for).
Real ifs and unreal ifs, and both of them announced before their consequences, like everything in this language. One chapter remains. It is about how you know what you know, which is where Phi has been heading all along.
The machinery, when you want it: conditionals are settled canon (lu realis, lu he irrealis, Slot 0 only) in the manual's Part IV, chapter 9 and the grammar references.