Filipino to Upper Sorbian: inclusive we does not tell you how many people
Filipino identifies whether the listener belongs to the group
NIU distinguishes Filipino kami, excluding the listener, from tayo, including the listener. Its outing dialogue moves between a trip made without the person being addressed and a proposed future trip including that person. This is useful information in Tagalog-based Filipino: we can identify participation before anybody lists all the group members. Upper Sorbian requires a different distinction as well, because its personal-pronoun paradigm separates dual from plural.
An inclusive Filipino pronoun may refer to the speaker and one listener, or to a larger group including both. Likewise, an exclusive pronoun can cover the speaker and one absent companion or several other people. Inclusion and exact group size are therefore independent. Translating tayo as a dual form whenever the listener is included would quietly exclude any additional participants who also belong to the proposed outing.
Upper Sorbian has a separate first-person dual
Gerald Stone’s Upper Sorbian table gives mój as the first-person dual nominative and my as the first-person plural nominative. The distinction matters when a Filipino plan is specifically for two people rather than for a larger party. The original kami/tayo contrast tells whether the addressee participates, but those words alone do not choose between the two Upper Sorbian number categories.
For example, an invitation meaning that the speaker and the recipient will travel together can support a two-person reading when the conversation establishes nobody else is involved. A report about the speaker travelling with one sibling can also concern two people even though the listener is excluded. The target dual is not reserved for the first situation. Its number information and the source’s inclusion information answer different questions.
Stone’s table also distinguishes the corresponding case forms: a dual group has naju in accusative and genitive contexts and namaj in the dative, while the plural paradigm has different forms. Thus deciding that two people are involved is only the first target choice. The translated clause must still identify whether those two perform an action, are affected by it or receive something. A general English gloss we cannot supply all of that information.
Ownership groups must not be confused with travelling groups
Filipino also distinguishes inclusive natin from exclusive namin in the ng-pronoun family. NIU illustrates ownership with a house described as ours, while the same family can occur in actor roles. When a trip is to our house, the people who own or share that house need not be identical to the people travelling. The Upper Sorbian number chosen for one group must not be copied automatically onto the other.
In an invitation, preserve both which people are included and how many are actually established. If a Filipino message only supplies tayo without enough context to identify two versus more, it has left a distinction that Upper Sorbian may require unresolved. Filling that gap with an assumed pair can change the booking, invitation or destination arrangement. The accurate interpretation follows the source group reference, rather than treating an inclusive pronoun as a hidden numeral.
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