Bulgarian to Lower Sorbian: a counted form is not the same as a dual
Two can change the target agreement system
Bulgarian distinguishes singular and plural but also has special counted forms for many masculine nonhuman nouns. Два крака, two legs, illustrates a form used after a numeral. Lower Sorbian retains a productive dual category for two participants or items. The Bulgarian counted noun form and the Lower Sorbian dual are therefore not interchangeable grammatical labels.
The Lower Sorbian documentation project describes the dual as actively used. In Stone’s comparative grammar, Serba is the nominative dual for two Sorbs in Lower Sorbian. That form belongs to a larger number system with consequences beyond the noun. A Bulgarian source naming two participants may need a target construction distinct from an ordinary plural used for a larger group.
A Bulgarian numerical form does not always mean exactly two
Leafgren’s Bulgarian grammar illustrates шест молива, six pencils, and няколко театъра, several theatres, with the same general counted-form mechanism used after two. Its presence in the source cannot therefore be treated as evidence for a dual target. Recover the actual numeral or quantity word before selecting Lower Sorbian number.
This is a concrete difference for quantities: two items form a pair, six do not, and several leaves the precise count open. An automated rule triggered only by a Bulgarian masculine ending would group all three incorrectly. The numeral and noun must be interpreted together.
Human reference introduces another distinction. Bulgarian has special masculine-person counting forms, and the reference grammar distinguishes their behavior from the ordinary numerical form for nonhuman nouns. The target decision should preserve the actual number of people rather than borrowing the surface ending from a source count of objects.
An unspecified Bulgarian we may need clarification from the event
When a Bulgarian sentence says ние, we, it does not through that pronoun alone specify whether the group contains exactly two members. Lower Sorbian’s dual-versus-plural choice makes that membership relevant. Two named people elsewhere in the message are not sufficient evidence unless they are the participants in the particular event being translated.
A meeting statement can concern the sender and one colleague, while a later statement concerns the whole team. Those clauses need not use the same Lower Sorbian number merely because Bulgarian uses a plural pronoun in both. The target number should follow the group actually performing each action.
Stone also distinguishes Lower Sorbian from Upper Sorbian in dual morphology: the Lower form illustrated above differs from an Upper Sorbian counterpart ending in -aj. A form copied from a general Sorbian table can therefore be the wrong target even if it correctly means two.
The core contrast is quantity versus grammatical number. Bulgarian numerical morphology can accompany several different quantities; Lower Sorbian dual morphology specifically participates in a two-member construction. Keeping those functions distinct preserves exact counts without importing an Upper Sorbian form or treating every Bulgarian counted noun as a pair.
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