Bodo to Welsh: the owner can change the first sound of the possessed word
A neutral Bodo possessor does not determine a Welsh mutation
Narzary’s Bodo paradigm gives bini for his or her, and explains personal possessives through a following genitive marker -ni. The source possessive form therefore does not itself distinguish the owner as male or female.
The Welsh Academy morphology account gives ei ben for his head and ei phen for her head. The possessive word looks the same in both, while the following noun begins differently. A Bodo possession phrase must consequently have its owner identified before that Welsh distinction can be selected; copying a neutral equivalent of the possessive alone leaves part of the target grammar unresolved.
The head belongs to the same lexical noun despite the changed beginning
The Welsh account traces these forms to pen and distinguishes the soft mutation after the masculine possessive from the aspirate mutation after the feminine possessive. Ben and phen are not evidence that the translation has selected unrelated body parts.
When a Bodo passage repeatedly discusses one person’s injury or appearance, the Welsh noun can change its initial form according to its construction. Replacing every occurrence with the dictionary headword to make the output look consistent would remove meaningful target grammar. Conversely, a mutation difference should not be used to invent a new owner when the source continues to refer to the same individual.
First-person ownership needs another target pattern
The Welsh Academy gives fy mhen for my head, with nasal mutation. This differs from both third-person examples even though the possessed body part remains the same. The target form reflects the particular possessive construction, not simply the general fact that something belongs to someone.
Narzary records a Bodo first-person singular possessive in the same paradigm as bini. A source change from the speaker’s possession to another person’s possession must therefore be tracked across the passage. Welsh cannot express that switch accurately by retaining one initial noun form and exchanging only an independent word for my or their. Interpret the possessor and then form the entire target phrase.
Grammatical role must be distinguished from ownership
Narzary separates Bodo genitive forms from direct- and indirect-object forms. A reference to a person affected by an action is therefore not automatically a possession phrase. This source distinction needs to survive before the Welsh possessive-and-mutation pattern is applied.
A Bodo sentence about seeing someone and a sentence about seeing that person’s head involve different objects. The Welsh forms above help express ownership in the second, but they are not replacements for every source personal reference. In this direction, identify whether the source person is owner, actor, recipient, or affected participant; recover any information needed about the owner; and preserve the lexical noun through its appropriate Welsh form. Mutation is part of making that relationship grammatical, not an optional spelling flourish added after the meaning has been translated.
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