Part 6
Pointing: ha and ra
The guest is shown around, and the pointing words come out. ha selects what the speaker treats as near or current; ra points beyond the immediate frame:
ha shiro mioru nai.
PROX tree beautiful be.
ra shiro ru whalo nai.
DIST tree INTS large be.
The tree by the door, the tree across the valley. Two words divide the whole field of pointing, and everything finer is said with a locational phrase when the room needs a better map.
01Standing alone as places
With nai, the same pair supplies here and there as predicates:
mia ha nai.
1SG PROX be.
shia ra nai.
3SG DIST be.
Two of the most useful sentences in the language, and each is three words long. Answering a call, placing a companion, promising presence: this little pattern carries all of it.
02Inside the phrase, and alone
Before a noun, the deictic leads the whole phrase:
ha lo melu
PROX PL friend
Standing with no noun after it, the deictic takes lo in front, exactly the way the pronouns do, and the phrase points at a plurality without naming a class. Babel's builders use it for their own bricks:
su lo mia lo ha ru thape.
OPT PL 1SG PL PROX INTS burn.
The two orders divide the work cleanly: ha lo thena, these things, when the noun follows; lo ha, these, when nothing does. Hear which job the phrase is doing and the order comes with it.
03Days and years
The pointing field includes time. ha philo is this day, today; ra torua, that year; and the tense-and-aspect pamphlet has already put ha philo at the head of a journal page. Near and far serve the calendar as readily as the room, one more place the two words quietly cover.
Practicepoint the visit
- This friend.
- That mountain.
- I am here. Say it as the whole answer it is.
- These things, with the noun; then these, without it.
Answers: 1 ha melu. 2 ra tomora. 3 mia ha nai. 4 ha lo thena, then lo ha. The deictic leads when a noun follows; lo leads when the pointing stands alone. Two small orders, two different jobs, no exceptions to remember.