Filipino to Dari: keep a description attached to the right noun
Filipino can place a linked description on either side
NIU illustrates bagong kotse and kotseng bago as two Filipino ways to express a new car. A linker joins the descriptive element and the noun, with the visible form depending on the preceding word. In Tagalog-based Filipino, changing the order in this pair does not change the description into ownership or introduce a second object.
For a Dari translation, that flexibility cannot be carried over as unrestricted permission to move every descriptive word to either side. The source needs to be interpreted first: kotse identifies the thing, while bago tells something about it. The target can arrange the phrase differently, but it should still describe the car as new rather than make a new person or a different object the head of the phrase.
Dari ezafa links a following description to its noun
Adam Baker’s Dari grammar illustrates seb-ɛ sʊrx, red apple, with the adjective following the noun and linked by ezafa. The same linking construction also participates in possession, as in seb-ɛ ahmad, Ahmad’s apple. Thus a Dari linker does not itself tell the reader that the following material must be an adjective; its grammatical relationship depends on what that following material is.
This is useful when a Filipino noun phrase contains both a description and an owner. The source linker and an ownership expression must not all be flattened into an English-style of chain before translation. A description tells what kind of item is meant; an owner identifies a person associated with it. Dari may use ezafa in both relationships while retaining their different meanings.
Baker gives a concrete attachment contrast between the big boy’s apple and the boy’s big apple. In the first, size describes the boy; in the second, it describes the apple. Moving the descriptive element within a Dari chain can therefore change the referent it qualifies. A Filipino-to-Dari translation must retain the intended attachment even when the source permits a different arrangement around its head noun.
A plural item does not require a plural adjective
The Dari description also notes that the adjective keeps the same form with singular and plural nouns, while ezafa follows the plural expression. Consequently, a Filipino plural noun phrase should not lose its quantity merely because the target descriptive word remains unchanged. Plurality belongs to the relevant noun expression, not to an assumed separate plural form of every modifier.
For this direction, identify the item, each description and each owner before assembling the Dari phrase. A statement about somebody’s new car should not become a statement about a new owner’s car because of misplaced attachment. Likewise, describing several items does not require changing the adjective simply to imitate a source plural marker. The translated phrase is useful when its reader can tell which thing is new or large, how many things are meant, and which person is associated with them.
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