Domain modules
Commons and Collective Governance
A council votes to allocate the season's grain, one member abstains, and someone asks afterward whether the decision was legitimate. Twenty-nine module roots let a speaker follow the decision from petition and proposal through practice and review. The same account can outgrow the council: sirami record, kawhera coerce, and whepelo retaliate belong to base vocabulary because none requires an institution.
Like every module, the specialized words are optional and use ordinary Phi grammar. A speaker who has not learned them can always ask for a core paraphrase. Learning them makes no one an authority, a lawyer, or a rightful decider for anyone else.
The chapter table below introduces 29 module roots. Current classifications bring the optional learning list to 53 words; base sirami, kawhera, and whepelo are taught alongside it. The complete machine-generated list is available under Commons and Collective Governance in the module lexicon. The JSON entries in vocabulary/content/ remain authoritative for each word's form and full definition.
Core vocabulary used by the module
The module does not replace what Phi already says about community and shared life. It adds narrower institutional relations around these familiar resources.
| Area | Core Phi resources |
|---|---|
| Community and shared life | sila community, punoa society, wema belong, miona person, lo plural, nuawe together, wesoma mutual |
| Deliberation and dialogue | lona meeting, shareo discuss, thilou inquire, lilea clarify, lonae respond, numike negotiate, whakeru object |
| Participation and stance | pawela participate, shorema contribute, lesawi consent, kanu choose, nawo agree, naweri refuse, kelomi accept, thekao acknowledge, ralu free, nawea respect |
| Resources and distribution | phelu hold, phowe share, phanoi portion, loa give, howela receive, phelona require, henoi enough, panuri resource, theula all, theli each |
| Values and reasoning | thua fair, theloma justice, kolo equal, sone value, peloma harmful, sherewa claim, thesori evidence, remotha reason, kirema criterion, soneho tradeoff, manawi compromise |
| Commitment and response | seru commit, thonai responsible, kanelu err, shiroka repair, talome restore, warosha reconcile, tholira forgive, ka cause, na necessity, po possibility |
| Information and change | hi direct evidence, ke inference, ti report, ho assumption, shane tell, thekiro write, sirami record, siru marker, sano know, helui change, and separately preserved source material |
| Power and safety | kawhera coerce, whepelo retaliate |
Systems lends the technical state behind an institution's tools, Ecological supplies pollution relations, and Philosophical Reasoning adds inference and validity. Base vocabulary already provides resource, claim, and evidence. None of them says who may decide.
Additional roots in this learning path
Ten established words give the path its concrete collective forms, group roles, and general word for a normative right.
| Phi | Working sense | Why it belongs here |
|---|---|---|
kathu | seal; an authenticating mark or the device that makes it | Official authentication belongs near records, roles, and institutional claims. The same word can still describe closure. |
kowela | council; a deliberative collective body | A council is more specific than a meeting: it persists as a body and may claim a decision role. |
laenu | commons; land, space, or resources held for a community | Shared holding raises membership, allocation, stewardship, and authority questions without answering them. |
shalimo | alliance; a chosen group organized around a shared cause | The alliance is the continuing bond, not the meeting where its members speak. |
sherelo | right; a normative claim that can bind conduct or institutions | A right can remain live under denial, unlike an entitlement whose definition begins with recognition. |
shorai | commune; share daily life, resources, and responsibilities | The collective relation belongs here. Its domestic life gives it another place in Household and Daily Life. |
temu | guild; an association formed around a craft or profession | A guild is both an institutional body and a home for shared craft, so Work teaches it too. |
theluo | steward; one entrusted with care for shared land, resources, or community | The role raises collective responsibility and ecological care together. |
thereo | mediator; a third party helping people in conflict reach understanding | Mediation is a stated group role and does not grant power to impose an outcome. |
thorae | facilitator; a person who supports group process | The role concerns how a group works through a meeting, not which decision it should reach. |
Records, coercion, and retaliation belong to base vocabulary
Their canonical entries have no modules field. A person may write down what happened before any institution sees the page. Coercion can occur in a private relationship, and retaliation may follow an ordinary refusal. Governance gives these acts institutional forms, but no institution is required before a speaker can name them.
Module roots introduced in this chapter
| Phi | Part of speech | Working sense | Essential contrast |
|---|---|---|---|
wemari | noun | member; recognized participant under stated criteria | Membership is recognized under a criterion; belonging (wema) needs none. |
shalori | verb | represent; act or communicate on behalf of another | Representing someone is not resembling them, and the standing always has a scope. |
punoki | noun | institution; continuing organized social arrangement | An institution outlives any one meeting; a label does not make it just. |
kowanu | noun | governance; continuing arrangement for collective decisions and practice | Governance can include several institutions or none; the word grants no legitimacy. |
sithora | noun | role; defined institutional or social position | A role is a position, never the person who currently fills it. |
loatho | verb | delegate; entrust bounded action or authority | Delegation entrusts a bounded task; the accountability stays with whoever entrusted it. |
karami | noun | authority; claimed or recognized power to decide or act | Authority is claimed power; kirethu (legitimate) asks whether the claim holds. |
kanuwa | verb | authorize; grant bounded permission or power | Authorization grants a scope; it neither proves competence nor asks the affected person. |
norulo | noun | jurisdiction; claimed scope of authority | Jurisdiction is the reach an authority claims, not the reach it actually has. |
kirethu | adjective | legitimate; justified under stated criteria | Legitimacy asks by whose criteria, which is why the question is worth asking aloud. |
nasholu | noun | rule; normative requirement, permission, or prohibition | A rule says what should happen; whether it does is a separate fact. |
pashenu | verb | petition; present a formal request to someone able to respond | A petition asks its recipient to act; it is neither a collective proposal nor an appeal. |
repora | verb | propose; present a possible collective action | A proposal is only ever a possibility on the table. |
norathu | noun | procedure; specified ordered collective process | A procedure is the steps; following every one proves nothing about the outcome. |
kanuro | noun | decision; choice given settled or actionable status | A decision can be contested and still be a decision. |
naweso | noun | consensus; stated collective decision condition | Consensus is a bounded procedural fact, not a feeling of harmony in the room. |
kasira | verb | vote; formally register a choice or stance | A vote is one registered stance; makelu (abstain) registers none at all. |
makelu | verb | abstain; formally register no selection | Abstaining is a choice to register nothing, distinct from refusal or absence. |
phanuli | verb | allocate; assign resources, access, time, or burdens | Allocation assigns; whether the assignment is fair is thua's question, not this word's. |
shereni | noun | entitlement; recognized and scoped claim | An entitlement is recognized and scoped; it is not yet in anyone's hands. |
phenori | noun | ownership; socially defined powers and claims over something | Ownership is a bundle of social powers, wider than merely holding something. |
naseru | noun | obligation; requirement borne under a stated source | An obligation has a source, and the source is what tells it apart from a wish. |
lothoni | adjective | accountable; required to answer and undergo review | Accountable means owing an answer, not the same as having caused the harm. |
helolu | verb | redress; act to address institutional or social harm | Redress answers a harm; it need not erase the loss to count. |
nashaku | verb | enforce; act in relation to compliance with a rule or decision | Enforcement acts on a rule; it proves neither the rule's justice nor its success. |
shanewi | verb | notify; formally direct information to a recipient | Notifying sends word; whether it was understood is a further question. |
tukiro | verb | review; systematically reconsider a prior matter | Review reconsiders; it promises neither independence nor a changed outcome. |
whetuma | verb | appeal; request formal reconsideration | An appeal asks for review; the review itself is a separate act. |
helaki | verb | amend; formally change part of a continuing matter | Amendment changes part of a continuing rule; the source record preserves what changed. |
Every verb in the table keeps the same form when Phi's ordinary event-noun rule turns it into a noun. Thus pashenu can mean a petition and repora a proposal, just as kasira can mean a vote and tukiro a review. The quality-noun rule likewise gives legitimacy from kirethu and accountability from lothoni.
Membership, representation, institutions, and roles
wemari is membership under a criterion someone can name. A person may wema belong to a place without carrying that institutional status, and a single event's participant is not yet a member.
ha sila wemari mua kowela pawela.
PROX community member LOC council participate.
shalori is speaking or acting for someone else, and the shape of that standing matters: who authorized it, on what matter, for how long, and how it can be corrected if it goes wrong.
mia ha sila shalori.
1SG PROX community represent.
punoki is what outlives any single meeting: the roles, the practices, the records, the relationships that keep functioning when any one person steps away. Calling something an institution does not yet say it works, or that it deserves anyone's obedience.
ha punoki lo sithora phelu.
PROX institution PL role hold.
sithora separates a position from whoever currently holds it, which is what makes it possible to ask who selected them, what they may do, and how the position passes on.
lo mia ha sithora kirothe.
PL 1SG PROX role define.
loatho entrusts a bounded task or a piece of authority to someone else. The one who delegates keeps the accountability; it does not travel with the task.
mia wei thia ha sithora loatho.
1SG DAT 2SG PROX role delegate.
Governance, authority, authorization, jurisdiction, legitimacy, and rules
kowanu is the continuing arrangement through which a group makes decisions, carries them into practice, and returns to them later. A council can take part in it; so can a neighbourhood assembly, rotating roles, or an informal custom. The noun saves a speaker from reciting the whole arrangement whenever the arrangement itself matters. Legitimacy remains a judgement. Representation and kindness need their own evidence.
ha laenu kowanu si helui.
PROX commons governance IPFV change.
karami is power that is claimed or recognized to decide or act, and it can exist without deserving to: without legitimacy, without real control, without the consent of those it touches.
ha punoki karami phelu.
PROX institution authority hold.
kanuwa is the grant itself, a scope handed to a recipient for a stated action. It proves neither the recipient's competence nor the consent of whoever it affects.
ha punoki wei ha wemari ha terura nilaki kanuwa.
PROX institution DAT PROX member PROX system inspect authorize.
norulo draws the reach an authority claims, across people, places, or time, and an overlapping or disputed jurisdiction is the ordinary case, not an error to resolve before speaking.
ha karami norulo ha luphano pharune.
PROX authority jurisdiction PROX watershed include.
kirethu is the question underneath all the others: by what criteria, by whose account, is this authority, this rule, this decision grounded? It is a question to keep asking, not a stamp to settle once.
wa ha kanuro kirethu nai.
Q PROX decision legitimate be.
nasholu is a neutral word for a normative rule. The exact law, bylaw, or treaty that carries the rule's force stays in the source record, since its precise wording is often exactly what a dispute turns on.
ha nasholu ha phoa phelona.
PROX rule PROX do require.
Petitions, proposals, procedures, decisions, consensus, and voting
pashenu carries a formal request to a person or institution able to answer it. A lone person may petition, or many people may join the request. It remains a request: the recipient still has to decide how to answer. A collective proposal uses repora, and an appeal of an earlier decision uses whetuma.
lo wemari wei ha kowela ha tukiro pashenu.
PL member DAT PROX council PROX review petition.
repora puts a possible action on the table, no more. What happens next, ignored, amended, adopted, rejected, is not decided by the proposing.
mia tha lo mia napuro phanuli tho repora.
1SG DECL.COMP PL 1SG grain allocate DECL.COMP.CLOSE propose.
norathu names the steps themselves: who participates, in what order, under what timing, toward what decision condition. A procedure followed to the letter can still produce a hollow or unjust result.
ha norathu lo phoa phelu.
PROX procedure PL do hold.
kanuro is a choice that has reached settled or actionable status, and it can be that while still contested, unimplemented, or under appeal.
ha kowela ha kanuro to phoa.
PROX council PROX decision PST do.
naweso is a bounded procedural condition, not a mood in the room. An honest report of consensus says who counted as a participant, what the blocking rule was, and what reservations remained.
ha kanuro naweso phelu.
PROX decision consensus hold.
kasira registers a stance; makelu registers the deliberate choice to register none. Neither word says anything about the ballot's form, its weights, or its threshold, which stay their own questions.
lo wemari ha repora kasira.
PL member PROX propose vote.
mia mua ha kasira makelu.
1SG LOC PROX vote abstain.
Allocation, rights, entitlement, and ownership
phanuli assigns resources, time, or burdens under a stated criterion, and it stays neutral on purpose: an allocation can be unequal, coerced, or legitimate by one standard and rejected by another.
ha kowela napuro phanuli.
PROX council grain allocate.
sherelo is a normative claim that remains sayable when recognition or fulfillment is disputed. A source tradition can narrow it to a human, legal, customary, or collective right; when the exact category carries force, it stays in the surrounding source record.
theula miona lo kolo sherelo phelu.
UNIV person PL equal right hold.
shereni is a recognized claim, scoped to what it actually covers, and it is narrower than many source traditions call rights. Where a source tradition's rights language matters exactly, it belongs in its own analysis rather than folded into this one word.
ha wemari ha napuro shereni phelu.
PROX member PROX grain entitlement hold.
phenori is a bundle of socially defined powers over something, wider than simply holding it. Caring for a thing, using it, or being affected by it does not by itself make it owned.
ha miona ha muralo phenori sherewa.
PROX person PROX material ownership claim.
Scarcity can be stated as henoi ma (not enough), and priority as sone noa under a stated criterion. Where a source tradition's property category, public, private, communal, has its own force, it keeps its exact name.
Obligation, accountability, redress, and enforcement
naseru gives Phi a way to speak of a duty someone did not choose: inherited, imposed, tied to a role. Naming its source is what separates an obligation from a mere wish.
ha sithora ha naseru phelu.
PROX role PROX obligation hold.
lothoni is the duty to answer and to stand review, which is not the same as having caused the harm. A person can be accountable under a procedure without being its cause, or voluntarily thonai responsible without holding any office at all.
ha woru lothoni nai.
PROX keeper accountable be.
helolu acts on an institutional or social harm, through acknowledgment, restoration, or another stated response, and it does not need to erase the loss to be real redress.
ha punoki ha peloma helolu.
PROX institution PROX harmful redress.
nashaku is institutional action tied to compliance. The rule being enforced, the evidence for a violation, and the fairness of the response are each their own claim, never assumed from the act of enforcing.
ha punoki ha nasholu nashaku.
PROX institution PROX rule enforce.
Compliance itself can be said plainly: nasholu heno, the rule is satisfied. Failing to satisfy one rule proves nothing yet about guilt or what should follow.
Notification, records, review, appeal, and amendment
shanewi is a source formally sending word to a recipient. Whether the message arrived, was understood, or was acted on stays open past the sending.
ha punoki wei lo wemari ha kanuro shanewi.
PROX institution DAT PL member PROX decision notify.
sirami preserves an account. Its source, time, and provenance make the record assessable; the act of writing alone grants it no authority.
lo mia ha kanuro sirami.
PL 1SG PROX decision record.
tukiro reopens a prior matter for structured reconsideration. It may confirm what stood before, reverse it, or leave it unresolved, and the word promises neither independence nor fairness in how that goes.
ha kowela ha kanuro tukiro.
PROX council PROX decision review.
whetuma asks a stated recipient to review something again, under a procedure with its own standing, deadline, and grounds. The review that follows is tukiro, a second and separate act.
ha wemari ha kanuro whetuma.
PROX member PROX decision appeal.
helaki changes part of something still living: a rule, a decision, an institutional arrangement. The exact old and new wording belongs in a source record beside the Phi, where its history can be preserved.
ha kowela ha nasholu helaki.
PROX council PROX rule amend.
Coercion and retaliation
kawhera names a real narrowing of choice through power or threat, and the claim owes its details: the demand, the alternatives that actually existed, and the account of the person on the receiving end. A rule or an urgent need is not automatically coercive, and neither does it rule coercion out.
ha miona thia kawhera.
PROX person 2SG coerce.
whepelo names a disadvantage imposed because of something the person did before it: a report, a refusal, a claim. Timing alone never proves it; the triggering act, the harm, and who held the power to impose it all have to be shown.
ha sithora miona ha wemari whepelo.
PROX role person PROX member retaliate.
Coercion and retaliation are ordinary base words used here, not exceptions, because a language for governance has to let speakers criticize the institutions they belong to as readily as they may praise them. The exact legal definitions and remedies a case may carry stay in source material.
Useful transparent compositions
Some governance expressions remain clearer as combinations because their parts expose the intended analysis.
| Phi expression or strategy | Practical meaning | Why it remains compositional |
|---|---|---|
| explicit affected being plus action, exposure, burden, benefit, or change | affected party | Being affected does not wait on an institution's permission to say so. |
represented wemari members or other named people plus shalori scope | constituency | The representative does not get to silently define who they speak for. |
kirema criteria for claiming, participating, voting, objecting, or appealing | standing | Ties standing to a forum and a matter rather than an inherent status. |
| ordered proposals, questions, reports, and decisions recorded for a meeting | agenda | Makes who controls inclusion, order, and amendment explicit. |
participation kirema plus exact count or proportion | quorum | Preserves the threshold and who counts toward it. |
quantifiers and exact counts around kasira | majority or minority result | Assumes no binary factions, no equal weights, no single voting system. |
exact source category plus nasholu in the surrounding analysis | law, policy, bylaw, treaty, contract, or custom | Preserves the source's own force and wording alongside the generic rule role. |
sherelo plus an exact source category when its force matters | a normative right under a stated tradition | Keeps the right sayable in Phi while the source record preserves whether it is human, legal, customary, collective, or another exact kind. |
phenori ownership separated from protective phelu, access, use, stewardship, and obligations | custody or property relation | Keeps possession, care, and ownership from blurring into each other. |
stated insufficiency with henoi ma | scarcity | Makes scarcity relative to a resource, a use, and a place, not absolute. |
sone noa plus a stated criterion | priority | Keeps ranking tied to the value doing the ranking. |
nasholu heno or its explicit negation | compliance or noncompliance | States whether a rule is satisfied without implying legitimacy, guilt, or harm. |
thilou inquiry plus scope, method, evidence, participants, and recorded remuma conclusion | investigation and finding | Separates the inquiry, the evidence, and the conclusion into their own claims. |
meeting sirami record | minutes | Names the event recorded, leaving exact format and approval as separate questions. |
kanuro decision plus conditions, duration, and scheduled tukiro review | provisional decision | Keeps a temporary decision's conditions and review date visible in the sentence. |
| explicit end of applicability, authority, date, replacement, and retained record | repeal or revocation | Distinguishes ending a matter outright from helaki, the amendment of one still living. |
| role, authority, benefit, concealment, exclusion, coercion, retaliation, harm, and accountability clauses | corruption, capture, domination, or abuse of office | Keeps the concrete power relations visible while a source tradition's own critical framework stays faithful. |
Source governance information
Names and wording belonging to peoples, governments, institutions, laws, treaties, contracts, ballots, budgets, and other governance artifacts stay outside the Phi passage wherever their exact identity or force matters. The module supplies the relations around such material; it does not translate the artifact itself.
Governance can use the base lexicon, these module roots, visible composition, and further roots admitted through protocol. A foreign name's pronunciation aid is a conversational convenience; it grants no Phi authority, role, or entitlement.
A Phi analysis can name the people and institutions involved, who proposed and who decided, which notice, record, and review relations matter, and what remains disputed.
Exact preservation keeps the document's history and identity available. Applicability, authorization, and justice remain separate governance claims.