| A. se=A=O X | A say (to O) X |
| B. se=S | S speak, make a communicative noise |
Se means ‘say’, and the subject is the person speaking. The object of se is always the audience. X can be reported speech or a topic. Reported speech is in a complement clause. The complement clause is marked by dodu only when it is indirect speech. Direct quotes do not use a complement clause marker. The topic is referenced in a peripheral phrase marked with ne. The O argument, the audience, can be elided, though it usually isn’t.
Se also has an intransitive construction that refers to making a communicative noise of some sort. Again, the subject is the speaker or the noise-maker. If an audience is needed, it is put in a peripheral phrase marked with du. Again, the topic of the speaking can be referenced in a peripheral phrase marked with ne.
Xunumi-Wudu does not allow regular spoken words to have only a single syllable. However, since se has to have a subject enclitic, and since things that speak tend to be rational animates, this is not an issue. When se takes an auxiliary, it forms a compound with the auxiliary, se-sede ‘be talking’ so that the full word is no longer a single syllable.
Tomorrow: da.