Description:

The term 'rif' is an abstract gender term from Old Common that refers to physical stature (in the sense of height especially), importance or significance. This conflation of physical stature with significance was not part of the sense of the word in Old Common and developed sometime during the Global Collapse.

Noun:

As a noun, 'rif' is a general word for physical stature, especially height, as well as metaphorical importance or significance of a person or thing. Physical stature can be clarified as the meaning by adding the term 'jen' as a modifying term. The general sense, if no modifier is used, is positive, in the sense of being tall or important, but this sense can be clarified by using a modifier like 'akpe', 'large'. Conversely, the sense of short can be intended and clarified using a modifier like 'sinku'.

Verb:

As a verb, 'rif' is an intransitive pali verb with an absolutive subject which is the thing whose stature is being discussed. It functions like a copular verb, in that any adverbial modifier applied to 'rif' is applied to the subject. So a normal way to say 'he is short' would be:

A sy se sinku rif.

These verb forms can be made comparative by adding a peripheral argument introduced with 'arpa'. For example:

A paluh se akpe rif erpa na pikki.
The dog is taller than the cat.

These senses could also have the sense of importance, so the second sentence, for example, could be read as 'the dog is more important than the cat'. The sense of pure, physical height could be conveyed by adding 'jen', 'head' as a modifying term, as in :

A paluh se akpe jen rif erpa na pikki.

The term 'wokky', 'notice', can be used like 'jen' to give the opposite sense, of pointing out importance rather than stature.

Modifier:

The modifier form 'rifys' has the sense of tall or important. The sense of 'tall' can be clarified or amplified by adding the modifier 'fo', and the sense of 'short' can be obtained using the modifier 'ni'. A clause introduced with 'erpa' can be used to turn this into a comparison. If you want to clarify that something is phycially tall or short and not necessarily comment on their importance, you can use the modifier to refer to their head instead of to them. Example:

A rifys atuin se cih.
The tall person is laughing.

If it possible to read that as 'the important man is laughing'. The sense of height can be clarified by essentially making the person a possession of their high head.

A atuin na rifys jen se cih.
The tall person is laughing.

This is literally 'the person of the tall head is laughing'. Something similar can be done using 'wokky', 'notice', to call out the sense of importance rather than height:

A atuin na rifys wokky se cih.
The important person is laughing.

That is literally 'the person of the tall notice is laughing'.