háver

Háver is a term used in fictional linguistics to denote a hypothetical grammatical category that encodes possession within a constructed language family called Háverian. The concept is not attested in natural languages and is used primarily for world-building and linguistic thought experiments. The name derives from Latin habere 'to have' with the -er suffix common in language names.

In Háverian, possession is marked on the possessor phrase by a bound morpheme called háver, while the possessed noun remains the head of the noun phrase. This places ownership information on the possessor rather than by inflecting the possessed item. The system commonly distinguishes alienable and inalienable possession; inalienables such as kin or body parts tend to require the háver marker, while alienables may take it optionally or exhibit separate allomorphs.

Grammatical realisation can vary: the háver morpheme may appear as a suffix to the possessor noun, a clitic on the noun phrase, or as a separate determiner depending on the text. The construction interacts with person and number agreement of the possessor, and may co-occur with classifiers or measure words in Háverian. The language is a tool for exploring how different syntactic arrangements affect discourse focus and typology.

Because Háver is a fictional construct, examples and descriptions are primarily used in fiction writing and academic exercises in linguistics. It serves to illustrate alternative frameworks for possession and to compare with real-world possessive systems such as genitive languages, possessive adjectives, or noun classifiers.