Czech to Sesotho sa Leboa: ordinal dots, noun-class agreement and sequence scope
Read the Czech dot as grammatical information
Czech 3. výročí means a third anniversary, not three anniversaries. The Academy handbook explains that a dot after a numeral can mark ordinal meaning; its examples also include dates and numbered floors. Removing the punctuation before interpreting the phrase can therefore change position in a sequence into a quantity.
The same handbook identifies exceptions in references where a number follows the noun, including chapters, pages and paragraphs. A missing dot does not always prove cardinal meaning. Decide whether the Czech expression counts objects, identifies a numbered item or describes an item’s place in an ordered series.
That decision comes before translating into Sesotho sa Leboa. A sequence position and a count answer different questions, even when both are written with the same digit. For a list of deliveries, distinguish the third delivery from three deliveries; for a document citation, distinguish a chapter identifier from the number of chapters being discussed.
The target agreement follows the item being ordered
Mojapelo’s Northern Sotho dissertation gives batho ba mathomo for the first people and lebotlelo la mafelelo for the last bottle. Mathomo and mafelelo retain their prefix, while the linking element agrees with the head noun’s class. The target distinction is not a reproduction of Czech masculine and feminine adjective endings.
Czech agreement also relates modifiers to a noun, but its categories and forms belong to Czech grammar. A Czech numeral or adjective agreeing with a feminine noun does not tell you which Northern Sotho noun class the translated noun occupies. Establish the actual target noun before choosing the agreement element.
This matters when a Czech phrase is abbreviated in a heading. Restoring the implied noun can be necessary to form the target expression, even though the source displays only a digit and punctuation. A form selected for a person should not be carried unchanged into a phrase whose target head is a bottle.
First and last require an identifiable sequence
The dissertation separately illustrates lebotlelo la bone, the fourth bottle, and explains that ordinals need enough background to identify the relevant series. First and last can identify a singular item, while plural reference may require a number or other information establishing which members are included.
A Czech expression referring to the first families need not specify how many families are intended. If the surrounding text does provide that limit, retain it: dropping the count can enlarge the group being described. Conversely, adding a count that the source never supplied would manufacture a boundary.
The direction of translation therefore requires two independent checks. Preserve the ordinal interpretation signalled by Czech punctuation or wording, then preserve the scope of the group being ordered. Agreement establishes the relationship between the target noun and its modifier; it cannot by itself recover whether the writer means one item, the first several items or everyone up to the last arrival.
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