Lower Sorbian to Hebrew: the two dual systems do not have the same reach
A productive pair category does not imply a universal target ending
The DOBES Lower Sorbian project describes an actively used dual category. The Hebrew Academy also recognizes a dual, but explains that its use is largely limited to paired body parts, certain time expressions and number expressions. Sharing the label dual does not make the categories equally productive across all nouns.
For an original Lower Sorbian message about two visitors, do not construct a new Hebrew noun form by attaching the dual ending solely because the source is dual. The target still needs to preserve exactly two visitors, but its ordinary numeral-and-noun wording may do that work rather than a special dual form of every noun.
The contrast matters in a schedule that mentions both two participants and a two-year period. The Hebrew construction appropriate to the time expression does not establish the construction for the people. Each quantity belongs to its own noun phrase and follows the target’s own conventions.
A dual noun can take plural adjective agreement
The Academy states that Hebrew adjectives modifying plural or dual nouns use plural agreement forms, with masculine and feminine suffixes. A Hebrew adjective without a separate special dual ending is therefore not automatically missing the source pair.
For an original Lower Sorbian description of two injured body parts, assess the count through the complete Hebrew noun phrase rather than requiring every modifier to display an independently recognizable dual. An appropriate dual noun and a plural adjective can belong to the same target construction.
Conversely, a plural adjective by itself cannot establish that the noun refers to exactly two. If the source identifies a pair of objects outside the target’s common dual categories, the Hebrew expression must make the count recoverable elsewhere. Agreement form and the asserted number are related, but they are not identical pieces of information.
Number must survive inside a larger relationship
Igartua’s Lower Sorbian study contrasts grod-owu, genitive dual of castles, with grod-ow, genitive plural. The exact pair can remain grammatical information even inside a phrase expressing a relationship to those buildings. It should not vanish when the phrase is translated into another possession or association construction.
For an original source account of repairs to the gates of two buildings, distinguish the building count from the gate count. Two buildings do not automatically mean two gates, and several gates do not mean several buildings beyond the original pair. A target that retains only general plural forms can obscure which count the source specified.
This direction calls for preserving quantity without pretending that Lower Sorbian and Hebrew have identical number paradigms. Identify where the source dual applies, whether the Hebrew noun has an established dual use, and how its modifiers agree. Then read the entire relationship phrase to recover the same pair. A shared grammatical label is a useful starting point, but it cannot choose every target ending or determine how many associated items there are.
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