Bosnian to Luxembourgish: mir can identify we or a singular recipient
The target spelling alone does not establish the participant count
Columbia’s Bosnian pronoun table distinguishes ja, first-person singular, from mi, first-person plural. It also separates subject forms from object forms. Those source distinctions provide useful evidence about who participates and in which role.
Grammaire.lu illustrates Luxembourgish mir both as first-person plural nominative and first-person singular dative. Its two model clauses distinguish a group saying something from somebody saying something to the speaker. Consequently, seeing mir in a target translation does not by itself prove that a singular Bosnian speaker has become a group.
A recipient is different from the person doing the speaking
The Bosnian case-marking study identifies dative recipient functions separately from nominative subject functions. In a source statement about somebody telling the speaker something, determine the person delivering the message and the person receiving it before choosing target personal forms.
The Luxembourgish examples are especially useful here because the same written personal form can occupy different grammatical roles. A target mir referring to the speaker as recipient must not be interpreted as the group performing the action. Conversely, a genuine source group must remain plural even if a reader recognizes mir primarily from a memorized singular-recipient expression. The complete predicate construction, not the isolated pronoun, resolves the difference.
A short target pronoun can preserve a full source reference
Grammaire.lu lists hien, heen, and en among related third-person forms and illustrates them in a question about knowing somebody. It also gives du and de in post-verbal examples. A shorter form need not indicate that the participant identified by the Bosnian source has disappeared.
The Bosnian lesson likewise distinguishes full and short accusative pronouns, including njega and ga. However, the two languages’ shortening patterns are not interchangeable. Do not place a Luxembourgish reduced form where a Bosnian clitic stood merely because both are short. Recover its target grammatical role and the construction hosting it.
Source clitic position does not generate target question order
Columbia’s introductory rule places the Bosnian clitic cluster after the first significant unit, illustrating questions with li and short object references. The source sequence identifies a question and its participants; it does not prescribe the position of each corresponding Luxembourgish word.
Grammaire.lu’s Gees du mat? and Gees de mat? demonstrate alternative personal forms within the same target question. If a Bosnian speaker asks whether somebody is joining an activity, retain the addressee and intended question before selecting the Luxembourgish form. A reduced de does not mean a new listener, while a full du does not by itself guarantee correct participant reference. Across a longer exchange, keep singular recipients, plural acting groups, and addressed listeners distinct even when target forms look alike or alternate in length. The source case and pronoun clues establish those relationships; the Luxembourgish clause must express them through its own forms and ordering.
Language references