Bhojpuri to Tongan: two people and a larger group need different references
We must first be identified as a real group
The Bara-Parsa Bhojpuri grammar records हम as singular I and हमनी as we. Tongan group reference should therefore not be selected until the source has established multiple people. Mistaking an individual narrator for a group introduces a participant error before any target dual or plural distinction is considered.
A source account can mention many relatives while still reporting one person’s actions. Conversely, a joint message can speak for several people while describing one shared activity. Count the actual source speakers, rather than the people appearing anywhere in the paragraph, before choosing the corresponding Tongan participant construction.
An inclusive pair differs from an exclusive pair
Catherine MacDonald’s research gives kitaua for an inclusive first-person dual and kimaua for an exclusive first-person dual. Both concern two people, but only the inclusive group contains the listener. A Bhojpuri source phrase meaning we two therefore requires more information than its numeral alone provides.
For a writer proposing an activity together with the reader, the pair can include that reader. For a writer reporting a journey undertaken with somebody else, the reader can be outside the pair. Changing that membership changes who is invited or who travelled. A target dual form must preserve both the source count and the listener’s relationship to the group.
A pair is not an unrestricted plural
The same paradigm distinguishes kitautolu for an inclusive larger group from the inclusive dual. If a Bhojpuri account genuinely involves several participants, choosing the dual merely because two of them were named nearby can restrict the target group incorrectly.
This matters when a source message moves between the writer and reader as a pair and a family gathering involving others. The references may change within one conversation even though the broad English gloss remains we. Keep track of which group each source predicate concerns; a collective activity does not imply that every participant belongs to every subsequent action.
A short form cannot replace every independent pronoun
MacDonald also distinguishes independent pronouns from shorter forms with restricted clause positions. A Bhojpuri source pronoun following a relational expression cannot be translated simply by selecting whichever target form is shortest or most familiar.
The distinction is particularly useful when an account says that someone danced or travelled with the writer’s group. The target reference after the relation must use a construction appropriate to that position. The same people may be represented differently elsewhere in the clause without becoming additional participants. Preserve the Bhojpuri group’s identity, exact count and inclusion first, then place its Tongan reference in a documented grammatical pattern. Repeating a form from an independent subject example does not establish that it is suitable after every relational expression.
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