Basque to Upper Sorbian: counting participants without losing their grammatical roles
Two in total is different from two for each person
Basque numeral placement varies in a way that can distract someone reading for meaning. Laka gives both bi txori and the western pattern txori bi for two birds. The position of bi does not change the count from two into something else. Before producing Upper Sorbian, identify the whole counted phrase rather than assuming that the word immediately before the noun must always supply the number. The dialectal order is source information, not a new target construction.
A more consequential distinction is between bi, two, and bina, two each. Laka describes the distributive ending as belonging to the numeral in the distributed noun phrase. In an arrangement involving supplies, two each and two altogether can require different quantities. Upper Sorbian dual grammar cannot by itself convey this distributive meaning. Establish the allocation intended by the Basque sentence before choosing target number forms; otherwise a grammatically well-formed expression for two may still give the recipient the wrong instructions.
Upper Sorbian number affects the verb as well as the count word
Stone describes singular, dual and plural as categories expressed in almost all finite Upper Sorbian verbs. A Basque source referring to precisely two participants can consequently require a target grammatical form distinct from the ordinary plural. Merely retaining the numeral while leaving a verb selected for a larger group does not account for that target distinction. The number of people in the event and the shape of the Upper Sorbian predicate need to be considered together.
Stone’s example dźełataj is especially instructive: it can represent either second-person dual or third-person dual. Both readings concern two, but one addresses them and the other reports about them. A Basque auxiliary may help recover that participant relationship. Do not decide that the target means you two simply because its verb is dual; retain the source distinction between the addressees and other people. The grammar also separates the numeral meaning one from plural forms used with plural-only nouns, illustrated by jedne durje for one door. Visible target plurality therefore does not invariably mean several objects.
A counted group still has a role in the sentence
The Witaj teaching worksheet explains that Upper Sorbian nouns occur in particular cases and that accompanying adjectives match their nouns in case. Thus counting two people does not settle how their noun phrase should look when they receive something, accompany someone or are discussed. For a Basque phrase carrying a relationship at its end, recover that relationship as well as the count before checking the target noun and adjective together.
The worksheet also records that some Upper Sorbian prepositions require one case while others permit two: its examples include z with genitive or instrumental. A visible preposition therefore cannot be checked independently of the following form. In Basque-to-Upper Sorbian translation of an allocation or group arrangement, keep three decisions separate: how many participants there are, whether a quantity is distributed to each, and what relationship the counted group has to the action. Dual morphology answers the first question in appropriate constructions; it does not automatically answer the other two.
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