Hárǝsi

Míhóchihko Ngweskó Ikwonngóghoma Hárǝsi
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Capital city	Ƨxeylá (Historical/Cultural) Oergafa (Administrative) Maxxúlyoly (Diplomatic)
Demonym	Hárǝsi
Government	Federated Tribal Democracy (Hárǝsi Government)
Official languages	National: Léna Regional: Eastern Merrie, Kotland Merrie Tourism: English
ISO-3166-1/2	HA
ISO-3166-1/3	MNI
Currency	POS Hárǝsi Lyakwǝ́ (HLY)
Date format	DD/MM/YYYY (Gregorian Calendar) FF/G/CCC/O (Ngweská Calendar)

The Ŋation of Hárǝsi /há.rǝ.si/, officially Míhóchihko Ngweskó Ikwonngóghoma /mí.hó.ɕih.ko ŋʷes.kó i.kʷoŋ.ŋó.ɣo.ma/ or "Independent Ngweská Territories" is a country on the continent of Archipelagia, located between the West Gweng and West Murbet seas and sharing only one land border, with Coldba (Cuba). It was founded by Omaatje on the 6th of January 2026. It is a founding member of the WOOFS alliance alongside Coldba (Cuba), Kaipa and Adnar.

Because it contains non-ASCII characters, when extended characters are not available the spelling Haresi is preferred.

Etymology

The origin of the word Hárǝsi has divided linguists and anthropologists for decades, but the most widely-accepted theory is that it is derived from the Proto-Hakhpha phrase *ğharwxodh sürai /ɣˤarʷxodˤ syrai̯/ which meant "empty of air". The reason behind this name has long been speculated, but Dr. Johm Esoterica of the University of Tiamis (Aprux Mexyrhat) posits that the earliest settlers of the area interpreted the frequent snow and blizzards as the air itself freezing in place.

History

Pre-Federation

The Ngweská, the primary ethnicity of Hárǝsi, were historically nomadic hunter-gatherers who roamed the tundra and taiga forests of Archipelagia. Due to expansion from other Ŋations, namely the former Murbetia and Coldba (Cuba), they were pushed back further and further over time, until eventually the Four Great Tribes (Léna: Ro imOzóihakézá) settled into the lands in the far West of Archipelagia. The lands settled by these four tribes, Ouzánngwech, Aikóiháw, Kwojongok and Arawǝhí, make up the vast majority of the land area of Hárǝsi today. There are also pockets of Ngweská settled across the remainder of the continent in small, fairly insular communities, the total extent of which are unknown. These "tribeless" Ngweská are known as Uyuchká by the population of contiguous Hárǝsi.

When the Ngweská migrated west, they came into close contact with another indigenous group of the region, the sedentary horticulturalists known as the Merrie, called Xézilóchká in Léna. It was Merrie farmers who taught the Ngweská how to cultivate crops and helped establish the town of Yorómenngwe (Eastern Merrie: Dhoaiguorinn), the oldest still-inhabited Ngweská settlement and to this day the main agricultural area of Hárǝsi.

The Four Tribes remained separate political entities, largely unincorporated, for an unknown period of time. During this period, the former Ŋation of Kotland briefly controlled much of the northern part of the territory, but was later abandoned, and a group of Merrie migrated to the island of Kotland. This group came to speak the Kotland Merrie dialect, which is quite divergent from the Eastern Merrie that is still spoken in much of central-eastern Hárǝsi.

Formation and Early Federation

In the years leading up to the unification of Hárǝsi, the city of Ƨxeylá (capital of the Ouzánngwech tribe) had grown considerably in prominence and population, both from the fishing trade gained from the teeming waters of the West Murbet Sea and the subsequent expansion of the navy to protect this trade. Eventually this led to a great deal of military power being concentrated in the tribe's territory and the beginning of the War of Unification (Léna: Múngwoppéighuyno Kwehía). This war was very short and largely bloodless, as most of the tribal lands surrendered and agreed fairly readily to confederate, with the notable exception of the Aikóiháw tribe, who staged the Battle of Ngógho apPƨ́ch near the village of the same name on the south bank of the river Rayno.

After the end of the War of Unification, the various factions formalised their territorial claims into states (Léna: Cékweyye, sg. Cékwely) and began the new Ngweská Tribal Federation as it is now. This was the beginning of the period during which the governmental structure was established, with the Parliament House (Léna: Ngweskó Isighǝttsésé) was constructed in the city of Oergafa, the capital of Cékwely Arawǝhínga. Locating the administrative capital outside of Ƨxeylá was a deliberate measure to prevent concentration of power within one of the new states. Similarly, the city of Maxxúlyoly in Cékwely Kwojongoka was chosen to be the site of diplomatic envoys and embassies due to its position close to the border with Coldba. These three settlements together work as the "capital cities" of Hárǝsi.

Demographics and Languages

Population

Hárǝsi is primarily made up of two ethnic groups, the Ngweská and the Merrie, with some small immigrant populations beginning to appear within the last few years primarily from Coldba, Kaipa and Lavvakcesaa. The vast majority of Merrie live in the two Merrie Cékweyye, Cékwely Ƨgghómma (Etatt Ennaidriegiu) and Cékwely Kollan (Etàtt Culland), with some notable populations in Cékwely Aikóihála around the towns of Yorómenngwe (Dhoaiguorinn) and Gwiyƨxxǝp (Aimluiea Chrain). The cultural capitals of each ethnicity are Ƨxeylá and Chrain aey Ain Cyieagh.

Religion

There is no official state religion of Hárǝsi, though the vast majority of its inhabitants do practise a kind of religion. The most common one is Ngweská Mysticism, called Tuxxónggǝp in Léna. It centres around a complex lunar calendar with several festivals dedicated to ancestral veneration, purification of food and water, ritual soup-making, etc. Each settlement has a shrine (Léna: rikw, pl. riagwe) to the local deity or Cékwo (pl. Cékwona) where many local events such as weddings, funerals, feasts and dances centre. It is common for travellers going through a settlement to make a small offering of food to the rikw in order to guarantee safe further passage.

the dialects of Léna spoken in Hárǝsi

Languages

Léna

Main article: Léna Language

The main official language of Hárǝsi is Léna, a Western Hakhpha language related to the Kkeṛhaqom and Shâshvekh languages spoken by most of the so-called Uyuchká in continental Archipelagia. It is divided into four dialect groups, in order of number of speakers: Southern, Northern, Western and Insular. The standard variety of Léna used in official documents and signage throughout Hárǝsi is based on the dialect of Ƨxeylá.

Léna is a highly synthetic, largely head-marking language with a complex gender system. It is well-known among linguists mainly for its very involved morphophonological system, which contributes to a very fusional morphology in contrast to the other Hakhpha languages (particularly Kkeṛhaqom) which are mostly agglutinative. Léna shares the common Hakhpha feature of marking objects rather than subjects on verbs, as well as marking possessors on their possessed nouns by means of prefixes agreeing with number and gender.

Merrie

Main article: Merrie Languages

Merrie is usually thought of as a pluricentric language with two main varieties which are largely mutually intelligible, those being Eastern Merrie, Dhraich Merriei Drieyi, and Kotland (or Western) Merrie, Gròich Mierriei esh Ckulland. They're typically just referred to by their individual words for "language", those being Dhraich /vɹæx/ and Gròich /grɔχ/ respectively. Eastern Merrie is spoken in the central and western regions of Hárǝsi and has a great deal more speakers than the Kotland variety, which is only spoken on the southern part of Kotland island.

Both varieties of Merrie exhibit largely the same grammatical features, differing primarily in pronunciation and vocabulary. There is a very pervasive system of initial mutations such that every word beginning with a consonant has 5 forms (including the Radical form). However, successive series of sound change has in many cases obscured the pronunciations of some mutated forms such that some forms are pronounced identically. Below are examples from Eastern Merrie:

Radical	G-type	S-type	N-type	K-type	Meaning
theithg /heig̊/	dheithg /veig̊/	theithg /heig̊/	rheithg /heig̊/	tteithg /teig̊/	tree (feminine)
muieamhu /ˈmiː.vu/	mhuieamhu /ˈviː.vu/	wuieamhu /ˈwiː.vu/	muieamhu /ˈmiː.vu/	muieamhu /ˈmiː.vu/	pocket (feminine)
suach /suːx/	zsuach /zuːx/	shuach /ʃuːx/	hnuach /nuːx/	ssuach /suːx/	hill (masculine)
camien /kǝˈmiːn/	cgamien /gǝˈmiːn/	chamien /hǝˈmiːn/	hngamien /nǝˈmiːn/	ckamien /kǝˈmiːn/	lord (masculine)
push /pʊʃ/	bush /bʊʃ/	phush /fʊʃ/	hmush /mʊʃ/	ppush /pʊʃ/	wolf (neuter)
gobb /gɔb/	ghobb /hɔb/	gyobb /jɔb/	ngobb /nɔb/	ckobb /kɔb/	nothing (neuter)

Doubled letters such as ⟨tt⟩, ⟨ck⟩, etc. indicate that if the word is preceded by a vowel (but not a vowel begotten by a silent consonant such as ⟨-gh⟩ /Ø/) then the consonant is pronounced as a geminate. This realisation is mostly found in older speakers however, as gemination is a feature most younger Merrie no longer distinguish.

English

English is used on signage and in some documents meant to be read by foreigners such as shipping logs and tax documents. English is not spoken by the majority of the population of Hárǝsi and is not taught as a part of the national curriculum (Léna: Kǝsputo Láxtékkiu), though it is available as an optional class in some schools.

Language Policy and Controversy

The government policy with regards to language in Hárǝsi is determined by the Ministry of Culture (Léna: Xánǝc uwArássezú). The one official language throughout the entire country is Standard Léna. It is legally required that it be the primary language of all signage, every official document and government proceeding, state-run education and all state media. The government also subsidises the production of TV, radio and stage shows as well as books if they are written in Léna. These efforts to promote the language began when the government moved to allow immigrants to gain Hárǝsi citizenship, a controversial move in the eyes of many but was justified as a necessary step for the country's modernisation.

Perhaps foreseeably, these policies have caused upset within the regions that speak Merrie, and recent court cases brought against the government have allowed Merrie to be placed above Léna on signage and some official documents in the majority-Merrie Cékweyye, but all Merrie children must learn Léna as a second language in school and a proficiency test must be passed in order to graduate - something which is not required for Ngweská students. Additionally, areas which speak divergent dialects from Standard Léna have levied criticism against the national government, saying that this centralisation of linguistic "power" is antithetical to the goals of the unified federal system. Minister Mikyéc Peytóxǝ́cché (Western Léna: Muksés Pochtóxǝ́ssé) of the Liberal-Democratic party Ǝyoxí Jájhǝ́ (English: Step Forward) has been the unofficial parliamentary leader of the movement to allow regions to teach primary school in the local dialect.