Part 7
A journal of sources
A journal gives source marking a quiet place to become familiar. It can hold what the writer directly perceived, what they inferred later, what someone told them, and what they expected without turning the page into a trial of character. The practice is optional. Phi does not prescribe a nightly quota or a weekly reckoning.
01The three-line form
Manual chapter 23 offers a small form with a perception, a feeling, and a wish:
mia lo melu to hi nila.
1SG PL friend PST DIR see.
mia siora phaelo.
1SG joy feel.
su lo mia therilu.
OPT PL 1SG rest.
The first line uses hi because direct perception matters to this entry. The second plainly records the writer's own feeling, so it leaves source unstated. The third is a wish under su, not an assertion that needs an evidential.
The form is a prompt rather than a rule. A writer may leave the first line unmarked when source is beside the point, or may record an inference, report, or assumption instead. The particle follows the actual assertion; the journal does not require every day to produce a witnessed scene on command.
02Four possible entries
| What the writer records | Phi | Source marked |
|---|---|---|
| Rain watched from the doorway | pheralu to hi lepa. | direct perception |
| Rain inferred from wet earth | pheralu to ke lepa. | specific evidence |
| sulae's return learned from a message | ne sulae so ti turema. | report |
| sulae's return expected from habit | ne sulae so ho turema. | background expectation |
The table is not a scale from best to worst. A careful report may be more dependable than a hurried glimpse, and a familiar seasonal expectation may outperform a faint trace. Each line says only which route the writer chose to state.
03Writing the support beside the assertion
An inference or report can be followed by its support:
pheralu to ke lepa. muila lue phialu nai.
rain PST INFER fall. earth ABL water be.
suliwa ti nai. ne siora mia shane.
snake REP be. NAME siora 1SG tell.
The second sentence is optional in each pair. Writing it can reveal whether ke rests on a case-specific sign and whether ti has a source the writer will later need to identify.
04Gaps and source material
When Phi lacks an exact source term, the journal can preserve the outside artifact beside a Phi account of what it means in context. The outside wording remains outside Phi, and repeated difficulty can enter the vocabulary decision process rather than being quietly disguised as an existing word.
05Reading an old entry
On returning to an entry, ask whether its source mark still describes what was known at the time. Later confirmation does not rewrite an earlier report into a past witness. A dated new sentence can record the new evidence while the first entry keeps its original relation to the event.
The useful page is the one that helps its writer notice a distinction. Some days that will be a marked source. On others, three plain sentences will be enough.