Dogri to Lao: a deferential final word may not mean I
The same Lao form can have a different sentence role
Dogri distinguishes familiar tu and respectful tuss in Sawhney’s account. Lao also has deferential expressions, but they are not confined to a one-to-one replacement for the Dogri address pronoun. NIU’s Grammar Notes 15 identifies khanɔ̀ɔy as a first-person deferential pronoun and also describes a sentence-final use that shows respect towards the listener without meaning I.
This distinction matters when translating a Dogri report about an absent person to a respected listener. If the Lao version adds the documented deferential final expression, it need not introduce the speaker as a second traveller or actor. The event can still concern the person named in the source. Identify whether the form supplies a participant or marks the relationship to the person being addressed.
Respect for an addressee differs from respectful third-person reference
The lesson distinguishes deferential you from deferential he/she and connects their use with formal situations, greater age or position. A Dogri message can likewise address one person while discussing another. The source’s respectful address form concerns the listener; it does not automatically tell the translator how to refer to every third party mentioned in the same sentence.
In an original household scenario, a speaker can tell an elder that a child is leaving. The elder is the respected addressee, while the child is the departing participant. Choosing a respectful final expression towards the elder should not make the child the elder, nor should a third-person pronoun be mistaken for direct address. Keep the conversational roles stable as the target chooses its deferential wording.
Kinship-like address is not always a literal family claim
NIU also describes respectful father- and mother-related terms used for people around one’s parents’ age who are not actually one’s parents. They can function pronominally in the examples. A Dogri source addressing an older acquaintance should therefore not be translated or interpreted as establishing a biological relationship merely because the Lao form contains a parental term.
Conversely, a source statement specifically identifying the speaker’s own parent needs that relationship retained. The Lao lesson distinguishes address to a father or father-aged man from reference to the speaker’s father through the full phrase. Read the surrounding words before deciding who belongs to the family. The target expression can communicate age-related respect, literal kinship, or both; the Dogri context determines which information is intended. This is why replacing every respectful source form with a single Lao word is insufficient. The translation needs the correct speaker, listener and third-party reference alongside an appropriate interpersonal expression. Those roles explain whether a final form is deference, a personal pronoun identifies an actor, or a kinship term actually names a relative.
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