Bodo to Tigrinya: having a relative differs from naming that relative
A family noun can already contain a Bodo owner
Basumatary gives apha for my father and bipha for his or her father. The Bodo word already supplies an owner or relationship anchor. A Tigrinya translation should retain that information, but the target construction depends on whether the sentence names the relative or asserts that such a relative exists.
Bulakh distinguishes attributive possession from predicative possession. In an attributive expression, a possessive phrase identifies a noun, as in a person’s grandmother. In a predicative construction meaning I have a sister, the sentence asserts the relationship itself. A Bodo family expression inserted into a longer sentence does not automatically require the latter construction.
For a source saying the writer’s father will arrive, translating only I have a father would preserve a family connection while discard the reported arrival. Conversely, a source introducing the fact that the writer has a sister needs more than a bare noun phrase identifying my sister. The statement’s function determines the target grammar.
The possessed relative can control one index, the owner another
Bulakh illustrates ʔanə ħafti ʔallatɨ-nni for I have a sister. In that construction, the locative copular verb’s subject index corresponds to the sister, while its object index corresponds to the speaker as possessor. The target’s feminine component does not identify the speaker as female.
This is relevant to Bodo’s gender-neutral personal expressions. A writer of unspecified gender can state a relationship to a female relative without providing a gender for themselves. A Tigrinya construction reflecting the sister’s gender must not be interpreted as new evidence about the source writer.
The example also shows why person markers should not be read in isolation. A first-person target component can identify the possessor without making that person the grammatical subject indexed by the same copular form. Follow the two roles through the construction instead of assigning every ending to the first person mentioned.
Respect and time focus remain additional information
Bodo distinguishes ordinary bi from honorific bithang. Bulakh’s Tigrinya account also includes respectful reference within a family identification, illustrating an old man identified as the speaker’s grandfather. Respectful reference is not supplied merely by choosing the correct male or female agreement pattern.
The same chapter illustrates a cleft that foregrounds tomorrow in a statement about a husband going away. Bodo gabɯn likewise supplies tomorrow in Basumatary’s travel example, but its only-I restriction concerns the actor, not the day. A target that highlights tomorrow would not automatically preserve a source excluding all other travellers.
For this direction, distinguish three relationships that can be compressed in a short source message: who the relative belongs or relates to, whether the statement asserts possession or reports an event involving them, and which participant or time is foregrounded. Tigrinya can distribute these meanings across a possessive phrase, copular indexes and a focus construction. Correctly identifying one family noun is therefore only the beginning of preserving the Bodo statement.
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