Hariiji

Nouns

True nouns

True nouns comprise a small group of monosyllables and disyllables. True nouns are single morphemes in and of themselves, which distinguishes them from nominalised sentences, verbal nouns and deverbal nouns. True nouns make up the most common vocabulary of the language:

Hé – house

Jeha – sister

Nominalised sentences

There is a large class of nouns which are derived from partial or full sentences:

Hariij - Hari ij – it commands – dragon

Yéhariij - Yé hari ij – a dragon speaks – Hariiji

Sémiij - Sémi ij – it smokes – smoking bar

Néhuj - néhi uj – we walk – journey

This mechanism is still highly productive and continues to produce new nouns, although the derivation is not always completely transparent in meaning (yééj, ‘it speaks’, is ‘sentient being’).

Deverbal nouns

There is also a large class of deverbal nouns derived from verbs by lengthening of the final vowel, which typically represent instruments:

Netúú – boat (netú – to sail)

Sémii – smoking pipe (semi – to smoke)

Verbal nouns

Verbs may also be transformed into nouns by zero-derivation:

Netú – a boat trip (an instance of sailing)

Sémi – smoke (an instance of smoking)

Nouns may modify each other. Compounds are head-initial:

Hé néhuj – house journey – inn

Morphology

Noun morphology is simple. Nouns do not decline for case or number. All nouns may undergo partial or full reduplication, which implies totality or large numbers:

Hé-hé – all the houses

Néhuj-néhuj – all the journeys

Sémi-sémi – all the smoke

Typically those longer than two syllables are only partially reduplicated (the last two syllables):

Hé néhuj-néhuj – all the inns

Pronouns

The true pronouns are comparatively rarely used in spoken Hariiji. They are acceptable only in the most informal situations. Elsewhere, noun forms like tála (servant) are used instead.

English	Hariiji
1ps	Uz
2ps	Ar
3ps	Ij
1pp	Ur
2pp	Az
3pp	Iri

Allocutive particles

The allocutive particles are a set of sentence-final particles that mark the listener's social status. When a group comprising members of different social statuses is being addressed, Hariiji defaults to the form appropriate to the most prestigious member of the group.

Particle	Level of formality
ca	Inferior
cáá	Friend
ut	Formal
cú	Respectful
sa	Worshipful

The particles are not compulsory in the lowest registers of speech but elsewhere are typically required. Even when neither the subject nor the object of a sentence is the listener, the allocutive will be present:

Ni cúma áá ij ni hé sa - He came out of the house, o worshipful one

The inferior pronouns are used to address social inferiors generally. Social equals may also be addressed with these forms in banter in some extremely informal situations, but generally use of this pronoun is highly offensive. Ca is also used by parents to address their children. Use of cáá is usually restricted to close friends. Ut is the typical particle used when addressing others of similar social standing, whilst cú is used for those of clearly higher social standing. Sa is the most respectful and is used to address high nobility, higher members of the priesthood and royalty. Slaves typically address their masters with sa.

Adjectives

All ‘content’ adjectives follow the noun and may be used without morphological change as stative verbs:

Hé bala – red house

Bala hé – the house is red

Numbers follow content adjectives. Demonstratives follow numbers.

Hé bala súú – two red houses

Hé bala súú is – these two red houses