Asa'pili

Asa'pili is a constructed language created by the pseudonymous author P.M. in his book Bolo'bolo. On the one hand, it is an artistic language, intended to explain his concepts for a sustainable future in an original way. On the other hand, it is a neutral auxiliary language intended for use in the quasi-utopian bolo-based global community which he describes in the book. Asa'pili is not a full language, but a basic vocabulary of about thirty words, which can be used to refer to cultural institutions and concepts.

The complete list of the basic words is as follows:

Glyph	Pronunciation	Meaning
Symbol of ibu	ibu	"individual, person"
Symbol of bolo	bolo	"community, village, tribe" (basic autonomous social unit of 300-500 persons)
Symbol of sila	sila	"hospitality, tolerance, mutual aid" (includes individual rights to taku, yalu, gano, bete, fasi, nima, yaka, and nugo)
Symbol of taku	taku	"personal property, secret" (right of each person to keep a footlocker of 0.25 cubic meters for inviolable storage of personal possessions; everything else is ultimately communal)
Symbol of kana	kana	"household, hunting party, family, gang" (close-knit group of 15–30 people within a bolo)
Symbol of nima	nima	"way of life, tradition, culture" (also, the right to practice and advocate for one's chosen way of life)
Symbol of kodu	kodu	"agriculture, nature, sustenance" (predominantly local — many bolos are to be self-sufficient in basic foodstuffs)
Symbol of yalu	yalu	"food, cuisine" (predominantly prepared in units larger than nuclear-family households from locally grown supplies)
Symbol of sibi	sibi	"craft, art, industry" (oriented towards skilled handicraft methods, rather than mass production, with frequent personal relationships between individual makers and those who use their products)
Symbol of pali	pali	"energy, fuel" (local self-sufficiency lessens the need for high resource consumption)
Symbol of suvu	suvu	"water, water supply, well, baths"
Symbol of gano	gano	"house, building, dwelling" (isolated single-family dwellings will be replaced by less wasteful buildings for kanas or bolos)
Symbol of bete	bete	"medicine, health"
Symbol of nugo	nugo	"death, suicide pill" (every ibu has the right to commit suicide at any time, or to request aid in committing suicide if unable to do so on their own)
Symbol of pili	pili	"communication, education, language, media" (no centralized educational curricula or one-way mass-media)
Symbol of kene	kene	"communal work" (localized initiatives to mobilize labor to accomplish necessary public tasks)
Symbol of tega	tega	"district, town" (loose self-governing affiliation of from ten to twenty bolos)
Symbol of dala	dala	"council, assembly" (forum for discussion and settlement of issues larger than a single bolo)
Symbol of dudi	dudi	"foreigner, observer" (external delegates who participate in dalas outside their own district or region)
Symbol of vudo	vudo	"city, county, trading area, bioregion" (about 400 bolos)
Symbol of sumi	sumi	"region, linguistic area, island" (about twenty to thirty vudos, the "largest practical unity")
Symbol of asa	asa	"earth, world"
Symbol of buni	buni	"gift, present" (informal exchange of goods which largely replaces commercial trade)
Symbol of mafa	mafa	"depot, warehouse" (organized reserves of basic items in case of collective or individual need)
Symbol of feno	feno	"barter agreement, trade relation" (more strictly reciprocal than gifts)
Symbol of sadi	sadi	"market, stock market, fair" (commercial trade for high-value or non-local items, has a limited role in the overall economy)
Symbol of fasi	fasi	"travel, transport, traffic, nomadism" (the right to travel everywhere at will; however, most travel will be local by low-energy methods)
Symbol of yaka	yaka	"disagreement, war, duel" (the right to challenge other individuals or communities to a duel or melee under specified terms)
	munu	"reputation" (more important than money in being able to cooperate productively with others)

All these terms (except munu) are accompanied by corresponding abstract glyphs, so that the concepts can be represented visually independently of any specific writing system. These words can be combined into modifier-modified compounds (with the two elements separated by an apostrophe), so that asa'pili means "world language", fasi'ibu means "traveler", vudo'dala means "county-level assembly", etc. Doubling a noun changes it into a collective or abstract noun, so that bolo'bolo means "all bolos, the system of bolos".

Bibliography

• 1983: bolo'bolo (8th ed. 2003) ISBN 3-907522-01-X; English edition ISBN 0-936756-08-X