Catalan to Māori: possessive choice depends on the relationship, not grammatical gender
A source feminine possessive does not choose the Māori category
Catalan possessives agree in gender and number with the noun they accompany. Māori possessive constructions distinguish relationship categories that do not correspond to Catalan masculine and feminine agreement. A source ending cannot therefore select the target possessive by visual resemblance.
The Kupu teaching guide contrasts tāku and tōku, both first-person possessives. Their difference concerns the relationship between the owner and the thing or person involved, rather than the owner being a man or woman.
The IEC illustrates Catalan la meva barca as a feminine noun phrase. That source feminine agreement identifies the accompanying noun’s grammar; it does not establish whether a Māori possession belongs to the a or o category. The target relation must be interpreted independently.
For a Catalan source referring to the writer’s vehicle, house or family member, preserving the first-person owner is only one decision. The Māori construction also needs the appropriate relationship category. A correctly translated owner with the wrong relational form can remain unnatural or misleading.
An item’s use can matter more than a broad dictionary label
The Kupu guide places transport and shelter in its o-category examples while distinguishing pets among a-category examples. It explicitly notes that a horse can be treated differently according to whether it is a pet or used for transport. The classification cannot be reduced to every animal belongs in one category.
A Catalan source describing the writer’s horse may leave that use unstated. The surrounding activity can provide the relevant clue: riding as transport and keeping an animal as a pet describe different relationships to the same lexical animal.
The same caution applies to family relations. A general shortcut equating all living beings with one possessive category would obscure distinctions the teaching guide makes among relational types. The source relationship must guide the target, rather than a simple living-versus-nonliving test.
This is separate from identifying a personal referent. Kupu gives ia for both he and she. A Māori pronoun without a sex distinction does not independently erase a person identified in the Catalan source; other wording can keep that referent recoverable.
A plural source group needs both a count and a membership reading
The Māori pronoun guide contrasts māua, two people excluding the listener, with tāua, two people including the listener. Catalan ordinary first-person plural wording can leave that difference to context. A target choice can therefore change whether the recipient participates.
If a Catalan source says that we share or use something, determine whether that means the writer and addressee, the writer and another person, or a larger group. The source possessive’s agreement with a singular item does not count the owners.
Likewise, a plural item can belong to a pair of people. The number of possessions and the membership of the owner group are separate facts. Māori dual or plural personal reference should not be chosen solely from a Catalan plural noun ending.
For this direction, recover the Catalan owner, the item’s relationship to that owner and the relevant group membership separately. Māori can require distinctions the source expresses only indirectly, while not grammatically reproducing some source gender distinctions. The useful target is the construction preserving those actual relationships, rather than the one most closely resembling the Catalan possessive ending.
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