Divehi to German: an unmarked noun can still require a definite article
A bare source form need not mean an indefinite object
Gnanadesikan describes Divehi nouns as inflecting along a definiteness scale. The definite form is often unmarked: refrī is illustrated as the referee, while refrīek̊ means a referee. A translator should therefore not read an unchanged-looking source noun as automatically lacking definite reference.
German places relevant information in a different part of the noun phrase. The Leibniz Institute’s grammar describes the definite article as identifying an entity or group from the situation or preceding text. A Divehi message can consequently require a German article even when its source noun has no separately visible equivalent of the. The translation must preserve how the referent is identified, not the number of words used to identify it.
A definite article also carries grammatical information
The German article paradigm varies with gender, number and case. The Institute contrasts der Mann and den Mann within that paradigm. The difference is not a change from one man to another; it reflects the phrase’s grammatical role. A Divehi reference can therefore keep its identity while acquiring different article forms in different target clauses.
This matters when a source introduces a particular person and then reports what somebody told or gave that person. Retaining the same German article merely because the referent is unchanged can miss the new grammatical environment. First resolve the Divehi event roles, then choose the target case and article form appropriate to each mention.
Definite and indefinite are not the only source readings
Gnanadesikan also distinguishes an unspecified suffix with readings such as some or other and, in negative contexts, any. Those meanings should not be flattened into a simple rule assigning every suffixed source noun to the same German article. A source can leave identity open in more than one way.
A request involving any suitable referee differs from a report about a particular referee already mentioned. The target must preserve that difference in reference. The practical decision is whether the message selects an identified person, introduces one person or deliberately leaves the choice unspecified; only after that interpretation should a German noun phrase be assembled.
The article can affect a following adjective
The Institute additionally notes that the German definite article governs weak inflection on a following attributive adjective. Adding the appropriate article to a Divehi description may therefore require another target adjustment rather than leaving the adjective untouched. The article and adjective form belong to the same target phrase.
Divehi adjectives do not inflect for case in Gnanadesikan’s account, so an unchanged source modifier cannot settle this German agreement decision. For a message identifying a particular referee by a property, preserve the intended person, the property and the clause role together. A successful translation may contain an article absent as a separate source word and an adjective ending absent from the source system. Those additions express target grammar; they do not authorize making an unidentified source person definite or changing which participant the description modifies. The source observations here concern northern and standard Malé Divehi.
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