Basque to Norwegian: zein questions need target gender and number without changing the choice
Basque zein does not supply a masculine or neuter noun category
Zein is the Basque interrogative for which in Laka’s grammar. It can be inflected for case, as in zeini, or combined with a postposition, as in zeinetatik, from which. Translating into Norwegian requires the question’s role and selection to be understood before deciding how the target interrogative should agree.
Basque nouns lack grammatical gender in the nominal system Laka describes. Consequently, a source question about choosing a bus or a map cannot provide a masculine or neuter ending to copy. Those properties belong to the Norwegian noun used for the item, while the source determines which choice the question asks the recipient to make.
Norwegian hvilken changes with the noun
NTNU’s teaching grammar illustrates Hvilken buss tar du? and Hvilket kart vil du ha? The first asks which bus the addressee takes; the second asks which map the addressee wants. The different interrogative forms follow the target nouns’ grammatical properties. They do not imply that one question is less certain or more polite than the other.
The same lesson gives Hvilke aviser leser du? for a question about newspapers in the plural. The target form therefore reflects number as well as noun gender. A Basque question selecting several items should not become a single-item choice merely because the dictionary entry zein is displayed as one unchanged headword.
For travel assistance, a question selecting a bus differs from one selecting a destination. The bus is the vehicle or service chosen; a destination names where the traveller is going. A service number and a city name supply different information. Correct Norwegian agreement cannot repair that semantic substitution. Preserve the object of selection before applying the target form.
Case-marked questions can ask about different relationships
Laka’s zeini illustrates that which can take dative marking, while zeinetatik includes an origin or from relationship. These forms do more than identify an item’s class. In Norwegian, the surrounding construction must preserve whether the question concerns a selected item, a recipient or a source. A gender adjustment alone cannot carry the entire relationship.
Imagine somebody comparing route information obtained from several maps. Asking which map they want is different from asking which map supplied a particular detail. Both involve maps, but the expected answer plays a different role. If a Basque source expresses a from relationship, the Norwegian translation should not silently turn it into a preference question.
For Basque into Norwegian, first identify what the answer must select and how that selection participates in the sentence. Then match the Norwegian interrogative to the chosen noun’s gender and number. This preserves the source question’s purpose while allowing hvilken, hvilket or hvilke to perform the agreement required by the target noun phrase.
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