Basque to Setswana: number, named groups and descriptions
Read the Basque noun phrase as one unit
Basque distributes information about a noun across the phrase rather than assigning each noun a grammatical gender. A description may end with a determiner carrying number, even when another word separates it from the noun. In neska gazte hau, meaning this young girl, the demonstrative follows the adjective. Translating the noun alone loses which individual the speaker identifies. The target construction must preserve that identification alongside the description.
Numbers introduce another distinction. Laka contrasts lau txakur, four dogs, with lau txakurrak, the four dogs. The numeral supplies a count in both, but the definite construction picks out an identifiable group. For a Basque instruction about four animals, distinguish any suitable four from the particular four already discussed. Setswana class selection cannot make this reference decision for the translator: count, identity and grammatical agreement are separate pieces of the message. Basque plural marking is therefore evidence to interpret, rather than a suffix to relocate mechanically.
Choose the Setswana class before extending the phrase
Setswana adds a requirement absent from the Basque noun system: nouns control class agreement on associated words. The SADiLaR grammar illustrates setlhare se, this tree, with a class-seven demonstrative matching the noun. That matching is grammatical classification, not a claim that trees have a sex. A Basque demonstrative identifying an object therefore needs both the intended reference and the agreement appropriate to the chosen Setswana noun.
Plural conversion also depends on the noun, rather than one universal replacement for a Basque plural determiner. Personal names create a particularly useful warning. The grammar gives Pule and boPule, with the latter referring to Pule and company. In an invitation translated from Basque, several guests accompanying one named person are different from several people who happen to share that name. Do not infer the membership of a group merely from the visible plural-looking prefix. The intended grouping has to survive the change of noun system.
Rebuild the link between a noun and its description
The Peace Corps grammar shows that Setswana qualifying expressions can require more than a descriptive word placed next to a noun. Its example dikgomo tse pedi refers to two cows; the linking material belongs to the construction around the counted noun. A Basque numeral phrase cannot be translated by preserving the source sequence and inserting a dictionary numeral. Determine which noun is being counted and build its Setswana connection accordingly.
The same resource distinguishes adjective constructions from descriptions formed with a verb. In a subject relative, the noun is followed by concord material and a verb with the relative ending -ng. This matters when a Basque passage identifies an animal by what it does rather than simply assigning a property. Keep the description attached to the intended animal, but let Setswana express the grammatical link. Expanding that link is necessary structure; it need not introduce an extra animal, a new action or an additional assertion.
Language references