lipu

lipu's semantic space is tied together by a piece of flat paper with writing on it. lipu can talk about both the texture and properties of that paper or the information contained on it, often both. For example, a document on a computer, while in no way as flimsy as a paper, is still very much lipu. If you take the writing off of a piece of paper, it's just as much a lipu. Some speakers argue that this is an extended metaphor and by using lipu to describe these files, one is framing the computer as a lipu. For example, in Southeast Asia, language was written on dried palm leaves, which without writing are still lipu. In fact, many speakers use lipu for all leaves, be they large or small, without any implications of writing. Anything flat and flimsy can be a lipu for these speakers. As soon as it gets hard, it's likely to be a supa unless it has writing on it, though. For example, a maya stelae could be lipu, but a rock shaped like one with no writing on it would almost definitely not be.