Lower Sorbian to Inuktitut: questions must preserve both participants
An object can be carried by the question ending
Pirurvik’s South Qikiqtaaluk grammar contrasts tukisi vit? with tukisi vinnga?: the second asks whether the listener understands the speaker, rather than asking about understanding without that specified object. The lesson calls these single and double verb endings. Its pedagogical separation makes the root and ending visible; it is not an instruction to insert equivalent spaces into a normal translated word.
For Lower Sorbian input, distinguish the person being asked from the person or thing understood. Source case and pronoun forms help recover that relationship, but an Inuktitut ending can carry information for both participants. A target with fewer independent pronoun words can still be specific about the object. Conversely, a recognizable understanding root is insufficient if the ending removes the speaker from a question that explicitly concerns understanding them.
An address pronoun does not necessarily count the people involved
Stone’s description notes that Lower Sorbian wy can address one person or two honorifically, as well as functioning as a plural. He also distinguishes literary and colloquial patterns of participial agreement in respectful address. Do not count addressees from a plural-looking pronoun or participle alone. A polite enquiry to a single person must remain an enquiry to that individual.
The Northwest Territories government’s Inuktitut conversation page explicitly distinguishes Qanuippit? when asking one person from Qanuippisi? when asking three or more. These attested greeting forms show why recipient number matters in the target. They do not supply a dual form, so it would be unjustified to invent one from the spelling of the other examples. If the Lower Sorbian source addresses a pair, preserve that fact and use a verified construction suitable for the actual recipients.
A different visible join can retain the same participant relationship
Pirurvik explains that the beginning of its double question endings depends on the final sound of the root: vowel-final roots take a v-initial ending, q-final roots take a q-initial form, and roots ending in k or t undergo the stated change to p. A difference at that boundary is not automatically a change of subject or object.
This matters when a Lower Sorbian exchange asks about seeing a person and then helping that same person. The target roots may require different surface joins even though the participant relationship remains constant. Evaluate who does the seeing or helping and who receives it before deciding that a changed letter has altered reference.
Lower Sorbian already offers a caution against treating every ending as the same kind of information. Stone distinguishes singular, dual and plural forms and their interaction with respectful address. Inuktitut question morphology combines its own participant and joining requirements. The target must preserve the source event and its recipients through those requirements, rather than make its word shapes resemble the source paradigm. The Roman examples here explain the attested lesson; they do not replace the site’s selected Inuktitut syllabic writing option.
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