-haru

What -haru means, with examples

-Haru is attached after a verb, as in mīharu (見はる) or okoraharu (怒らはる), to show light respect toward the person doing the action; it corresponds to "…nasaru." It is widely used in the Kansai region as an honorific similar to -reru/-rareru in standard Japanese, and today it is said to be often used with almost no sense of respect.

When visiting the house next door to ask whether the wife is in, a speaker asks with haru attached to iru ("to be"). Other examples include the following.

• "Yō utsutte harimasu nā" (よーうつってはりますなぁ, "It really suits you")
• "Shimo e sagarahattara yoroshiosu wa" (シモへ下がらはったらよろしおすわ, "You'll want to head south")
• "Hetabarahatta" (へたばらはった, "They were worn out")
• "Kettai na koto o iwaharu hito ya na." (ケッタイナことを言わはる人やな。, "What odd things that person says")

How it attaches and conjugates

-Haru conjugates as hara, hari, haru, haru, hare, hare, and is also used in forms such as mīharahen (見（みー）はらへん, "doesn't look"), utsutte harimasu, and sagarahatta. How it attaches depends on the form of the verb before it. One-syllable verbs such as miru ("to see") and kuru ("to come") are lengthened to mī and kī.

A form said to come from nasaru

Forms like kakaharu are said to have arisen when yaharu, a changed form of the auxiliary verb nasaru, attached to the continuative form of godan verbs: kakiyaharu became kakyaharu, with a contracted sound (yōon), and then kakaharu, with a plain sound (chokuon). The resulting haru then came to be attached, like nasaru, to the continuative form and after -te as well, giving forms such as tobiharu, okihatta, and netehatta.

Another word that developed from nasaru is naharu. It begins to appear around the Enkyō era (1744–48) of the Edo period as a word of the pleasure quarters of Kamigata (Kyoto–Osaka); in the later Edo period it was also used in Edo's pleasure quarters, and it spread to ordinary townspeople's households. In Kansai it is used as an auxiliary verb, as in "Sā nominahare" ("Go on, have a drink") and "Goran nahare" ("Take a look").

An early example of haru is the phrase "hatarakaharu node" (働かはるので, "since they work") in Takahama Kyoshi's Ōuchi Ryoshuku of 1907.

How it differs from honorifics in standard Japanese

The basic rule of honorifics in standard Japanese is "do not elevate your own side," and people close to you, such as family, count as your own side. Saying to someone outside the family "Chichi wa raishū kaigai e irasshaimasu" ("My father will be going abroad next week," with an honorific verb) is considered inappropriate.

-Haru, by contrast, is also used when talking about people on one's own side. To say that one's own father is at home, a speaker may say "ite harimasu."

Even within the central Kinki region around Kyoto and Osaka, speakers in Kyoto City are said to use -haru especially often and in an especially wide range of situations. Among Kyoto City speakers, women are said to use -haru more often and toward a wider range of people. Among women, the younger the age group, the weaker its honorific coloring is also said to be, and the stronger its role of marking the person being talked about as a third person. Male speakers, when talking about a third party, are said to use haru for people they treat as above them, and yoru, toru, or oru for people they treat as below them.

Haru is attached even to people referred to as a group rather than as specific individuals, such as Yūzen dyeing artisans and the kimono dealers of Muromachi, and to historical figures such as Emperor Kanmu. Standard Japanese does not use honorific forms for such people, but in the Kyoto City dialect doing so is said to be normal.