A primer page · the first paper in the bundle
First Words for Small Keepers
From the Constant press. This page is the same in every edition anyone has checked, the printers say. (told, the printers)
Here is a cup. (witnessed)
Gran's gran made the cup. (told, Gran)
The cup is Gran's. (The paper that says so lives in town.) (held, the paper in town)
The cup is the best cup. (You may think so. Say it so.) (guessed)
Now you know the four ways of saying. (told, the primer)
See much, and say -va. (told, the primer)
Listen well, and say -se. (told, the primer)
Keep the papers, and say -mun. (told, the primer)
And guess all you like, little Keeper: only flag your guesses, the way boats flag their nets. (told, the primer)
A guess with no flag is how true things drown. (told, the primer)
Penciled on the facing page
Newcomers ask what happens if you leave the mark off. Nothing happens. You are simply not understood, the way a sum with no answer is not a sum. (witnessed)
Slide from -se to -eth halfway through a story, and everybody at the table knows the gossip has gone soft underfoot. (witnessed)
If somebody asks you to say it in -va, they are calling you a liar as kindly as it can be done. Smile, and say how you know. (witnessed)
Children learn the told mark before they can lie. That is the point, the grandmothers say. (told, the grandmothers)
I have taught for thirty years, and I would not swear which way round it goes. (guessed)
Even the world's own name ends in the guessed mark, if the philologists have it right: Ithreth. (told, the philologists)
For practice
Mark these yourself. No answers are printed, because the answer is how you came to hold it. (witnessed)
The kettle at the Waystation is sometimes warm. a mark, left for you
Haltmere is built around a basin. a mark, left for you
My grandmother untied a knot on Knotting Night. a mark, left for you
The road is longer to a town you have stopped loving. a mark, left for you
The schoolmaster, the parish school on the Lantern Rows. (witnessed)