Basque to Hebrew: distinguish all the people from each person
Basque supplies several different ways to describe a complete set
Laka’s Basque grammar distinguishes guzti, meaning all, from bakoitz, meaning each. Her examples haur guztiak and haur bakoitza contrast all the children with each child. The grammatical number differs because the second expression addresses members individually rather than simply naming the complete plural group.
This difference matters in a Basque instruction about a group completing a task. A statement covering all participants and an instruction assigning a task to every individual can impose different practical requirements. A Hebrew translation should retain the original distribution rather than replace both Basque expressions with an undifferentiated idea of a large or complete group.
One Hebrew word can occur in more than one quantifying construction
The University of Vermont lesson explains that Hebrew kol can convey all, each or every, and an entire whole. It directs readers to the number of the quantified item and the presence of the definite article. In the lesson’s plural definite construction, the interpretation is all. The lexical item alone therefore does not settle which Basque meaning the resulting phrase expresses.
For the contrast between haur guztiak and haur bakoitza, examine the complete Hebrew noun phrase, rather than confirming only that kol appears. A correct-looking dictionary equivalent can occur in a construction with a different scope. The relevant comparison is between the source quantifier plus its noun and the target quantifier plus its noun, number and reference.
A whole entity is not automatically a group of individuals
Laka also illustrates lur guztia, all the earth or land, alongside the plural child example. The different noun and number change how completeness is understood. A Basque statement about a whole area should not become an instruction applying individually to several areas merely because the same all-related vocabulary appears.
The Vermont lesson’s entire or whole interpretation highlights the corresponding target distinction. In a translation about school premises, covering the whole site differs from assigning something to each room. Neither the English gloss all nor the presence of Hebrew kol removes the need to identify what constitutes the relevant whole.
Keep the quantified group’s role in the sentence
Goenaga explains that Basque case marking attaches to the complete phrase and identifies its relationship to the predicate. Structural cases include ergative, absolutive, dative and genitive. Quantifying a group does not eliminate those roles: all the participants doing something are different from all the participants receiving something.
When a Basque instruction distributes materials, identify the quantified recipient group separately from the materials being distributed. The phrase meaning each participant specifies how recipients are considered; the object phrase specifies what is handed out. A Hebrew translation that moves individual distribution from recipients to objects can change the practical instruction even when every noun remains present.
Read the quantifier and case construction together before choosing the Hebrew phrase. This preserves whether the source concerns a complete group, separate members or one entire entity, while retaining who acts and who receives the result.
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