Fijian to Estonian: respectful number is not always a headcount
A source pronoun can describe a relationship rather than a group
Joseph Hong’s Fijian survey separates literal pronoun number from respectful uses. The dual can address a stranger of comparable age whose status is unknown, and certain kinship relations can use dual or trial forms even when one person is addressed. His description therefore warns against translating every nonsingular-looking address as an invitation to several people.
The literal number system remains important elsewhere. Hong distinguishes two participants from a few and from a larger group, while explaining that the category called trial need not mean exactly three. In Estonian, the translator must decide which information the particular Fijian form contributes: a count, a social relationship or a combination established by the context. Those interpretations are not interchangeable.
For an address to one relative, inventing a second recipient because the source uses a dual category changes the message. For an ordinary literal address to two participants, treating the same category as merely respectful can erase one of them. The surrounding exchange, not the category name alone, determines whether the count is part of what must survive.
Estonian has its own social choice between forms of address
EKI’s pronoun table lists sina and its short form sa in the singular second person, and teie with short te in the plural. It also distinguishes longer and shorter forms according to emphasis, noting that not every case has both. A difference in written length is thus another dimension from either headcount or respect.
Arvi Tavast’s discussion published by EKI explains that the distinction between sina and teie can express respect, social distance, uncertainty or unfamiliarity with the listener’s preference. He also describes variation in people’s reactions to familiar address. This is evidence against automatically assigning one target form to every stranger, not a prescription that all Estonian recipients now prefer the same style.
A respectful Fijian reference to one person can consequently call for a decision about Estonian address without calling for a plural audience. Preserve the individual recipient while selecting wording appropriate to the established relationship. If the source truly addresses two people, do not let the possibility of respectful singular teie obscure that actual plurality. Social force and participant count need independent interpretation in both directions.
Case changes need not signal a new recipient
The EKI table also gives sinule and sulle for a singular recipient, alongside teile in the plural column. Those forms help express a relationship to the addressee inside the sentence; they are not extra people introduced by the translator. A source that addresses somebody and later describes something directed to that person still concerns the same individual.
This creates three separate translation tasks: resolve the Fijian referent, preserve any relevant literal count, and build the Estonian phrase required by its role and style of address. A short te is not a Fijian trial equivalent, and a longer sinule is not automatically more socially respectful than sulle. Keep emphasis, case, number and interpersonal distance from being collapsed into one misleading scale.
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