24 · hi ke ti ho
The last chapter of grammar, and the most Phi of them all. Four small particles mark how you know what you are saying: hi, I witnessed it; ke, I infer it; ti, someone told me; ho, I assume it. They stand with the other verb-particles, and they turn every statement into an honest one. Something has happened at the well:
I
lopia lue phitura shua. lopia haolu.
lopia: suliwa mua phitura nai. mia suliwa hi nila.
| new word | say it | it means |
|---|---|---|
| suliwa | su · li · wa | snake |
| hi | hi | (I saw it myself) |
A snake at the well, and the child says hi: seen, with these eyes. That is the strongest thing a Phi speaker can say about anything, and the language spends it carefully.
II
sulae shua.
sulae: suliwa ti nai. siora mia shane.
wheo kau phitura thalo. wheo muila nila.
wheo: suliwa ke nai. mia suliwa ma nila. mia ruela mua muila nila.
| new word | say it | it means |
|---|---|---|
| ti | ti | (someone told me) |
| ke | ke | (I infer it) |
sulae knows by telling (ti) because siora ran ahead with the news. The elder walks to the well, sees no snake, sees the winding trail in the earth, and says ke: inferred, from evidence. Three people, one snake, three kinds of knowing, and each sentence wears its kind honestly.
III
phao: suliwa ho wepu. suliwa lo miona ma lothea.
wheo: lia. suliwa maeli nolika nai.
lo mia mua phitura phialu kolua. mawha suliwa.
| new word | say it | it means |
|---|---|---|
| ho | ho | (I assume it) |
| lothea | lo · the · a | love |
The parent assumes (ho) that the snake has gone, since snakes do not love crowds. The elder agrees: a quiet animal. Water is fetched; no snake anywhere; nobody was bitten and nobody was harmed, including the snake, which is how this language prefers its stories to go. And there, in the parent's sentence, one word the whole book has been saving: lothea. Love. You will meet it properly in the texts.
IV
shero shua. lopia nophi shane.
lopia: mia suliwa hi nila. sulae ti sano. wheo ke sano. phao ho sano.
wheo: lia. theula miona shewo haolu.
| new word | say it | it means |
|---|---|---|
| shewo | she · wo | true |
The child retells the day as a study in knowing: I saw; sulae was told; the elder inferred; the parent assumed. And the elder's blessing on it: everyone spoke truly. Not everyone knew the same way (that is the point), but every sentence carried its own evidence, and so all of them were honest. This is what the four particles are for. Phi does not ask you to be certain. It asks you to be exact about how you are not.
The grammar of this book is complete. You can say what is and is not, when and whether and why, whose and where and to-where, what you feel, what was said, what you would wish, and, now, how you know any of it. One thing remains, and it is not a lesson.
The machinery, when you want it: evidentiality has the manual's Part IV, chapter 16 entirely to itself.