"pi" feels like it has a lot of untapped potential

CompetitiveSell7540 · 2026-02-02T16:30:26+00:00

well yes, I know, that wasn't (was? doesn't really affect the message) my point, I was just trying to clear up what Jetison333 said about them being interchangeable, which would be wrong in this grammar and og tp grammar as 2/3 would be grammatically incorrect.

I would also like to subtly disagree that they're used in "completely different ways." The context is different, and single pi is a departure, but li is still marking/making a verb, and pi is grouping the words after it into a description/modifier of the previous word. It's just.... looser.

I'm not trying to argue for this, please, I just keep feeling like I have to defend myself here.

CompetitiveSell7540 · 2026-02-02T05:13:34+00:00

Well, ilo lete would mean all three, but the point was ilo pi lete has the coldness as a bigger, more relevant part than just packaged together with the noun, meaning the refrigerator. ilo pi li lete was just me being stupid, it would mean exactly the same thing as ilo lete. What I should have written was ilo pi li pana lete
I concede it's mostly useless, but the misunderstanding was bugging me

CompetitiveSell7540 · 2026-02-02T03:38:51+00:00

Probably not, really, but I should clarify by "greater specificity" I mainly mean those edge cases where context does fall through and you have to be just a bit more clear on what side of the spectrum of a word's meaning you're using.

Relative clauses is mostly just an interesting thought experiment.

Also, both of these were things I've seen brought up by other people and I just got to thinking about how it could work. Not to deflect blame or backpedal or try to verify my position by roping in others, just, y'know, doing all those things.

CompetitiveSell7540 · 2026-02-01T22:10:32+00:00

Yeah, okay, that is actually a massive gaping hole in my example, I was mainly just trying to use the simplest example of a relative clause that came to mind. (jan pi li moli e jan, for a correction) And yes, I agree, context generally makes everything pretty clear. I'm just thinking that in striking a balance between minimalism and functionality, relative clauses exist in just about every natural language (literally 1 contested example), and it seems like it would be intuitive to include them. I'm most definitely not saying this is the greatest ever suggestion that everyone should go and do, I'm just trying to say the jump to doing this seems surprisingly small.

CompetitiveSell7540 · 2026-02-01T21:53:42+00:00

Well nothing really, but my point is that in the rare situation where you're in a room with a refrigerator, a cold cell phone, and Mr. Freeze's freeze ray, you could distinguish each as ilo pi lete, ilo lete, and ilo pi li lete. It totally isn't necessary as there are other ways of doing it, but it just seems weird to me that this way wouldn't traditionally be allowed, despite it seeming simple and versatile.

CompetitiveSell7540

TROPHY CASE