Fijian to Azerbaijani: possessive structure does not have one fixed shape
A named animal can change the Fijian possessive construction
Ruqan Wang’s Fijian analysis compares na vale ni koli, a house associated with a dog, with na vale ne-i Soto, a house associated with a dog named Soto. The appearance of a classifier in the named expression does not turn the animal into a person. Her analysis relates the difference to the grammatical type of the possessor expression: a common noun versus a proper name. This is important when translating a Fijian account that alternates between an animal’s name and a descriptive reference.
The same source distinguishes classifiers expressing ownership from ones expressing an eating or drinking relationship. Consequently, not every change in the short material around a Fijian noun changes the owner’s identity. Some changes concern how the possessor is expressed; others concern the relation to the item. Establish those separate contributions before replacing the whole phrase with Azerbaijani possessive morphology. Wang also shows the classifier with a named pet’s bone intended for eating.
Azerbaijani marks both the possessor and the possessed noun
The Peace Corps Azerbaijani manual illustrates mənim bacım for my sister and sənin bacın for your sister. The possessor has a genitive form, and the kinship noun bears a corresponding possessive suffix. A source phrase containing one visibly separate Fijian possessive expression can therefore require target information in more than one location. Counting the separate words is not a useful test of whether the relationship has been translated.
The manual contrasts kitabım, my book, with dəftərim, my notebook. The different vowel does not identify a different owner: it reflects the target’s suffix pattern and vowel harmony. When comparing Azerbaijani references to several items, distinguish a sound-conditioned suffix change from an actual switch of possessor.
First-person possession can carry a shared-group distinction
Hong’s Fijian pronoun survey describes inclusive and exclusive first-person distinctions in possessive expressions as well as ordinary pronouns. A Fijian reference to our belongings can thus specify whether the listener is among the possessors. This is independent of whether the item is associated with one person, two people, or a larger group. Nor does an inclusive owner group mean that everybody mentioned elsewhere in the account belongs to it.
The Azerbaijani manual gives bizim for our without an inclusive-versus-exclusive pair. When shared responsibility matters, the surrounding description may need to preserve the Fijian group’s membership. A move from one person’s item to a jointly associated item changes the relationship; a sound-conditioned suffix vowel does not. These differences explain why Fijian classifier forms and Azerbaijani endings cannot be treated as interchangeable pieces.
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