Lower Sorbian to Catalan: respectful address does not tell you how many recipients there are
One respectful recipient can have plural-looking source grammar
A Lower Sorbian message addressed to one visitor can use grammar that also belongs to plural address. Before translating an invitation or reminder into Catalan, establish the actual recipients from the conversation rather than counting them from a pronoun alone.
Stone’s handbook notes that Lower Sorbian wy can respectfully address one person or two. He also distinguishes colloquial agreement from practices in the literary language. A respectful plural form therefore cannot independently prove that a larger group is invited.
For a meeting reminder, confusing one recipient with a group can change who is expected to respond. Conversely, a message actually addressed to two people must not become an invitation for only one. Keep the headcount separate from the courtesy expressed toward those people.
Catalan offers more than one respectful address pattern
The Catalan public administration school distinguishes vós, using second-person plural grammar, from vostè, using third-person singular grammar, and informal tu. Its course recommends consistency across the verb, possessives and weak pronouns when choosing a form of address.
A respectful Lower Sorbian source does not force one target pattern simply because its verb looks plural. Catalan vós and vostè can both address a person respectfully while selecting different agreement. The appropriate choice also depends on the type of correspondence and the intended relationship.
The course’s table associates vós with vostre forms and us, while vostè belongs with seu forms and a different weak-pronoun pattern. Replacing only the written address word can consequently leave a mixed sentence. Read the whole Catalan reminder as one address relationship.
For example, a personal invitation and an administrative notice may concern the same recipient but use different conventions. Preserve the source’s intended distance and clarity while following the chosen target convention throughout. Do not infer that a change in grammatical person means a different human recipient has appeared.
Distinguish the recipient from another person mentioned in the message
Third-person grammar in a Catalan vostè construction still addresses the listener. In a Lower Sorbian letter mentioning both the recipient and an absent colleague, a target third-person verb should not automatically be assigned to that colleague. Establish who the sentence is speaking to and who it is speaking about.
This is particularly useful for instructions to pass information on. The recipient who must forward a notice, the colleague who will receive it and the writer issuing the request are three separate roles. A formally courteous translation can remain wrong if those roles are exchanged.
Keep any explicit count attached to the correct role as well. Two people invited to attend are not necessarily two people required to reply separately, and one person addressed respectfully is not automatically speaking for an entire institution. Those commitments must come from the source.
Stone’s account describes Upper and Lower Sorbian together, so its language labels matter. The Lower Sorbian observations used here should not be replaced with an Upper Sorbian example merely because the forms look related.
A useful final check follows the correspondence: how many people receive it, how they are addressed, and what each is expected to do. This preserves Lower Sorbian courtesy and participant roles without treating plural morphology as a headcount or mixing Catalan address systems midway through the message.
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