Basque to Kinyarwanda: one each is an allocation, while one by one is an order of entry
The Basque distributive tells you the amount for each recipient
Musu bana means one kiss each in Laka’s Basque grammar, while seina musu means six kisses each. The distributive ending belongs to the numeral in the phrase naming what is distributed. For Kinyarwanda, preserve that per-recipient amount rather than interpret it as the total quantity for the whole group.
Laka also illustrates a construction in which girls can give boys one book each. The important distinction is between one book shared collectively and a separate book allocated to each recipient. Keeping the noun book and a singular numeral is not enough if the target loses the distribution across the boys.
Kinyarwanda numeral repetition can express distribution
Cox and Gakuba’s lessons illustrate abiri-abiri in a payment example meaning two francs each. They also give Mwinjire umwe-umwe for entering one by one. These are documented target illustrations, not translations of the Basque kiss or book phrases. They show that repeated numerals must be interpreted with the event they quantify.
The payment example allocates an amount to each person. Their egg-purchase example also expresses five francs each. Here each applies to the eggs being priced, not to an allocation of money to buyers. The unit distributed or priced must therefore be identified from the clause, rather than assumed to be a person. The entry example instead arranges participants in a sequence. A Basque distribution of one book per recipient should not become an instruction that recipients enter a room singly, and a queue instruction should not become a statement about each person receiving one object.
For a Basque message allocating materials, identify the distributed item and the recipients separately. If six objects go to each of several people, the target should preserve six as an individual allocation. Interpreting it as six for everyone together changes how many materials must be prepared even though the numeral itself remains visible.
Count the allocation before inferring a total
The Basque distributive alone does not state the size of the recipient group. Six each for two recipients and six each for five recipients require different totals. A Kinyarwanda translation should retain the per-person quantity without inventing a group size to make the arithmetic feel complete.
Likewise, the one-book-each example does not say that the books must be delivered one after another. Distribution can occur simultaneously. Adding a sequential interpretation would impose a procedure absent from the source, while omitting the distributive relationship could turn separate allocations into a single shared item.
For Basque into Kinyarwanda, determine whether the numeral measures an individual allocation, a collective total or the sequence of participants in an action. Then select target wording that preserves that relationship. The documented repeated-numeral patterns offer useful resources, but the source event decides whether the message concerns payment per person, one item for each recipient or people proceeding one by one.
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