I can finally address the first post I made on this site exactly a year later! It wasn’t planned to be like that, but I noticed that I had started this blog in March 2019, so I decided that it was time to finally address this. I’ve narrowed down the root that I would use to say something like ‘Hi!’ or ‘Hey!’ That root is «pya», and I can say that with relative confidence at this point.
Now, «pya» is replacing «pla» from my original set of monosyllabic roots, but I’ll get around to discussing the rest of those changes soon too. So, «pyo» is the verb ‘to be’, «pyi» is ‘yes’ or ‘do’ (in the sense of ‘I do want it’), and «pyu» is a conjunction that denotes presence (e.g., ‘with’). I don’t know what the meaning of «pye» would be, but it’s obviously part of the root too. Now, for saying ‘Hi!’ or ‘Hey!’, I think any derivation of «pya» works.
«pyo» works as ‘to be’. On its own, it could be ‘there is’. So, «pyo ke» would mean something like ‘there they.SG are’. Saying «pyo me» would be like saying ‘It is I!’, which is fun. Now, extending this to something like «pyo Greyson» is like saying ‘there is Greyson’, which makes sense for a greeting. Shorten it to «pyo» to be more informal and to make it sound more like an interjection.
«pyi» is ‘yes’ or the emphatic auxiliary ‘do’. To me, that feels fitting for an informal greeting as well, especially since ‘yo’ in English seems to have come from ‘yes’ (according to Wiktionary). It’s already an interjection and an exclamation, so why not make it work for a greeting? (Also, if you’re having trouble pronouncing «pyi», remember that «y» can be pronounced like English ‘y’ or ‘w’. So, saying something like ‘pwi’ is fine too!)
«pyu» is a conjunction that indicates presence. So, saying «pyu Greyson» means something like ‘at/with/by Greyson’, which also seems fitting for a greeting. If you’re greeting someone, you’re likely with them or by them.
At that point, I might as well say «pye» is fair game until it isn’t!
I like having multiple options saying ‘Hi!’ and ‘Hey!’ is just /h/ followed by differing vowel sounds. Plus, it’s too soon to settle if I want to. I’m just starting the process of really ironing out meanings, so I might as well keep it flexible.