NAHULNI~ is usually found in the middle of a Compound or Complex Sentence – and serving as functor – i.e. of different functions e.g. as a: conjunctor, an adverb, a disjunctor.
SOMETIMES, YOU MAY hear it like an Interjection from native-born speakers, as in:
NAHULNI! OR EVEN its shortest spoken form, HULNI! But don’t be puzzled, their Expression-like Usage is derived from a previously-said sentence or phrase and a/some yet unsaid, elliptical or omittable statement(s) – identifiable as ‘possible’ Consequents.
LET’S JUST TRY one illustrative situation: You’re arriving by your house doorsteps when you heard your sister (holding an umbrella and) calling out her just left/leaving boyfriend – now in the yard: Nahulni..
THAT’S ALL YOU heard; but before you came by, your sister said: Yamay payong.. (Transl: “Here’s the umbrella!”). Then, said:
NAHULNI..! (BUT YOUR coming caused her to pause; so, she did not say anymore the intended possible Consequents like: (Nahulni) melbeng ka (Lest, you’ll get wet); or (Nahulni!) on sahit ka (Or else, you’ll get sick’). [Did you notice that the unsaid possible Consequents – ‘you’ll get wet’ and ‘you’ll get sick’ are elliptical, omittable, even perchance automatically implied? So that,
BY USING SIMPLY Nahulni..! after your boyfriend saw the umbrella, you’ll get appreciated for not being redundant or makulit (a quite negative, unwanted trait avoided by many young Filipinos).
FOR A BROADER appreciation, let’s try some applications of ~Nahulni~ in its long, grammatical forms, to wit:
S-1: Dododop mo y essel nahulni on bangon e ngalingali (Transl: “Speak softly lest (i.e. in order that not) the baby be awakened”).
S-1’s ~nahulni~ represents the functor (sometimes termed as “conjunction”) lest – to capture the meanings here of: ‘so as not’, ‘in order not’, ‘for fear that’, etc. the baby wakes up. Next.
S-2: Iduhat mo (na)hulni melbeng ak. (Transl: “Open (the door, gate, etc.), otherwise, I’ll be wet.”).
S-2’s ~NAHULNI~ represents the functor (or adverb) “or else”, or even “else” (then, follows the Consequent) I’ll be wet.
[TAKE NOTE: that English departs here as of a different family from Nabaloi; for it will use otherwise – still as an adverb, but maybe introducing an alternative e.g. in a Sentence like S-3:
‘TAKE LANE 1 – it is the safest; otherwise, you could take Lane 2 – it is safe too!’
IN THIS INSTANCE, Nabaloi will use agposi, instead of Nahulni. Agposi shall now give the sense of ‘for the reason that’; cf. with its earlier use of nahulni ≡ otherwise, or else. Our third illustration:
S-4: PASIYAM.. NAHULNI MAN babawi. (Transl: “More intensely/fervor/etc.. or she may backslide”).
S-4’s ~NAHULNI~ is translated here as the English disjunctor or~ now more in the sense of an afterthought- usually said (or added?) later in short discourses. Ah, ~nahulni~ is truly, and uniquely Nabaloi, an EXPR in its own right.
LET’S PAUSE HERE yet our Discussion lest – or Nahulni, we forget tracks of what we already had understood or internalized in the foregoing paragraphs. Ayuh kha nete, ah!
