Bhojpuri to Catalan: respectful address changes the whole verb pattern
Three social levels do not give three matching translations
Bhojpuri address can encode distinctions that disappear if a translator treats every listener as an interchangeable you. Lohar’s field grammar describes three degrees of honorificity in the Bara-Parsa variety, while Gupta’s study of vocatives connects address choices with age, kinship, gender and social position. A respectful Bhojpuri ending therefore carries interpersonal information, even where the person’s name is absent.
Catalan distributes that information differently. CPNL distinguishes familiar tu, formal vostè and the respectful vós used in particular written and spoken settings. These are not a conversion table for Bhojpuri’s levels. A term addressing an older relative, for example, does not by itself establish whether a Catalan letter should sound intimate, ceremonious or administratively cordial. The relationship expressed by the source must guide the Catalan construction.
A listener can take third-person or plural grammar
Vostè refers to the person being addressed but requires third-person verbal forms. Vós can address one person while taking second-person plural forms. Consequently a singular Bhojpuri listener may legitimately produce apparently plural Catalan grammar; changing that verb back to a singular second-person form can destroy the chosen respectful treatment.
The contrast is visible in CPNL’s Perdona, qui ets tu? and Perdoni, qui és vostè?, familiar and formal versions of asking who someone is. Their difference extends beyond the pronoun. In a Bhojpuri message containing several requests to the same person, the Catalan verbs, weak pronouns and possessives need to remain consistent with one treatment rather than alternating according to the source sentence’s surface wording.
Requests and prohibitions need distinct Catalan forms
CPNL pairs Entra with familiar tu and Entri with formal vostè: both invite someone to enter. This makes short Bhojpuri instructions especially sensitive to lost honorific information. An omitted subject in the source does not mean that a Catalan imperative is socially neutral; its ending can still identify the chosen treatment.
Negative commands introduce another change. Catalan uses subjunctive forms for prohibitions, rather than adding a negative word to every affirmative imperative unchanged. A Bhojpuri instruction translated into Catalan must preserve whether the action is requested or forbidden and then select the appropriate verb form. The source’s agreement suffix and its negative construction cannot be transferred as separate dictionary substitutions.
Do not interpret every Bhojpuri auxiliary literally
Bhojpuri’s verbal sequences can also conceal meanings unrelated to physical movement or possession. The Universal Dependencies description distinguishes सक saka for ability from पा pā for managing to achieve something, and records लग laga for beginning and चुक cuka for finishing. A respectful request containing one of these sequences still needs its aspectual or modal meaning in Catalan; address grammar alone does not complete the translation.
This is where a word-for-word rendering can change the practical message. A Bhojpuri statement that someone managed to complete an action reports an outcome, whereas an ability statement leaves completion open. Catalan wording must retain that contrast while applying its own personal endings, instead of reading every component of the Bhojpuri verb chain as an independent action.
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