On 'efu and F-words

Original question text:

> Kaltxì ma Karyu!
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> I have another listening exercise for you. This time, it's a bit more intermediate. There are two variants attached because the recording comes with a question about **'efu**.
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> The question is this:
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> **'efu fwa** or **'efu futa**?
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> Allow me to explain.
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> As I was writing the selection out, I used **'efu** a lot. Usually it's cut and dry, transitive with nouns, intransitive-copular with adjectives. When I got to the sentence **kifkeyt awotx fko tsun tsive’a a fì’u oe ‘efu**, my gut instinct felt that the intransitive use here was best due to my instinct around when **'efu** is transitive being, with a few not-for-people-adjective exceptions, it is transitive for physical things being felt (ie **'efu ta'lengti aekxtxu**) and intransitive for feelings (**oe 'efu nitram**).
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Original correspondence text:

> First of all, nice little piece! Are you a pilot, by any chance? Or do you just love the experience of flying as a passenger? In any event, I especially liked your final thought: looking at the world **fa kusamea menari**. That’s very evocative and completely **leNa’vi**. **Seysonìltsan**!
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> I’d like to offer some suggestions for somewhat easier-to-parse syntax, which I think will make it more appropriate for a listening exercise and appeal to a wider audience.
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> Here’s how I would translate your passage into English. Let me know if this is what you had in mind or if I’ve misinterpreted anything:
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> > The experience I like most is flying. There’s nothing like watching the land and clouds pass by. While flying, I feel that the entire world can be seen. This feeling makes me wish I could ride an ikran. I wish I could feel the wind in my face and look down at the world through Seeing eyes.
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> If I have that right, then see what you think about these proposed alternatives:
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> **’Awa lie a oeru sunu frato** > **Tsalie . . .**
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> Since you’re talking about the experience you like more than any other, tsa- feels right here. Note from Mako: We later went back to **'awa lie a txasunu**.., dropping **frato** to streamline the meaning closer to my original intent.
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> **kem alu nerìn futa > kem a nerìn futa**
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> “**Alu**” is essentially “equational”: A **alu** B is A = B, where A and B are the same sorts of words. But **kem** is a noun and **nerìn** a verb, so that doesn’t work here. Using a by itself to introduce a modifying phrase gets you where you want to be.
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> **kifkeyt awotx fko tsun tsive’a a fì’ut oel ‘efu**
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> Well, that definitely made me think! Your insightful analysis of **’efu** made me realize there’s a use of that verb that we haven’t seen yet (or at least I don’t think we have—I could be wrong about that.)
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> As you noted, **’efu** can be vtr. or vin. As you said, “transitive with nouns, intransitive-copular with adjectives.” (BTW, the object noun in the transitive case doesn’t have to be completely tangible and concrete. For example, **Oel ’efu ngeyä tìyawnit**, ‘I feel your love.’). But we haven’t yet had “I feel that . . .” sentences, as in “I feel that she wants to go.”
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> The candidates are:
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> 1. **Oel ’efu futa po new kivä.**
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> Perhaps. But I agree with you that this doesn’t feel quite right. The object of **‘efu** here is too abstract.
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> 2. \***Oe ’efu fwa po new kivä.**
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> This doesn’t work, because intransitive **’efu** is always complemented by an adjective expressing a feeling.  “**Fwa po new kivä**” is not a feeling.
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> 3. ???**Oe ’efu tsnì po new kivä.**
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> This would be an innovation, since to my knowledge we’ve never seen an example like this.
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> 4. **Lu oeru tì’efu a po new kivä.**
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> In other words, “I feel that” = “I have the feeling that . . .”
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> I’ll think about this some more, but right now I’d go with #4 as the clearest and least problematic way of saying it. So we have:
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> **lu oeru tì’efu a kifkeyt awotx fko tsun tsive’a**
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> **Fìtì’eful oeru reykangal a fì’ut tsun oe ikranti mivakto** > **Fìtì’eful oeti reykangal tsnì tsivun . . .**
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> Here’s how William Annis explained it in his Horen:
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> 6.11.1. Causative of Intransitive Verb. When an intransitive verb is made causative, the causee, which had been in the subjective case, is in the patientive.
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> **Oe kolä neto.** *I went away.*
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> **Pol oeti keykolä neto.** *She made me go away.*
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> In our case, **rangal** takes **tsnì** for its complement:
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> **Oe rangal tsnì tsivun oe ikranti mivakto.** (I’d tend to use **tsivun** rather than **tsun**, since you’re hoping something could be the case rather than stating it is the case.)
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> So the causative becomes:
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> **Fìtì’eful oeti reykangal tsnì . . .**
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> **tsilvun** > **tsirvun**
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> **Tsilvun** would mean “I wish I had been able to” (past counterfactual) rather than “I wish I were able to” or “I wish I could.”
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> **mì hey oeyä** > **mì hey**
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> So the whole thing would be:
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> **Tsalie a oeru sunu frato lu tìtswusayon. Ke lu ke’u na kem a nerìn futa atxkxe ayfìwopxsì ftem. Tengkrr tswerayon, lu oeru tì’efu a kifkeyt awotx fko tsun tsive’a. Fìtì’eful oeti reykangal tsnì tsivun oe ikranti mivakto. Nìrangal tsirvun ‘ivefu hufweti mì hey ulte nekll nivìn kifkeyti fa kusamea menari.**
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> As I said, let me know what you think about all this. Then I’ll offer some suggestions for the recording. In the next few posts I’m going to publish the two contest-winning stories that people have yet to see. After that I’ll be happy to publish this second listening exercise of yours.
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> Sorry for the dissertation. 😄 Someone (perhaps Einstein?) said, “Everything should be made as simple as possible. But not simpler.” Words of wisdom.
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> P.
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*Originally received on May 26th, 2020*