Lower Sorbian to Kazakh: a noun without a plural ending can still preserve a counted group
The source’s agreement pattern is not the target’s counting pattern
Stone describes Lower Sorbian numerals one through four as agreeing with their nouns in gender and case, with two taking dual and three or four taking plural. A count can therefore be visible through the numeral, noun and surrounding agreement. Kazakh quantity examples in the Learner’s Corpus use a different pattern: the numeral identifies the count while the counted noun lacks an added plural ending.
The corpus illustrates үш кітап, three books, and он қалам, ten pens. These are not counts of one book or one pen. A Lower Sorbian plural noun can consequently correspond to a Kazakh bare noun while the numeral preserves the group. Adding a target plural suffix merely to match the source noun’s appearance is not a reliable correction.
A source dual can preserve two without a matching target dual noun
The Lower Sorbian dual provides a specific two-person or two-item distinction. When an explicit source numeral already supplies that count, the Kazakh expression must retain its value rather than reinterpret it as an unspecified group. The target need not reproduce a separate dual-looking ending to express the same exact quantity.
This matters for an instruction to bring two books instead of several. If the Kazakh noun looks identical to a dictionary singular, read it together with its numeral before judging the translation. Conversely, a source dual without an explicit numeral may require wording that makes two clear; leaving only a general target plural can lose source precision.
A question about quantity is not a request for an ordinal
The Kazakh corpus gives неше and қанша in questions about how many or how much. In its illustrated counted-noun questions, the noun again does not take a plural suffix. A Lower Sorbian question can therefore lose its visible plural morphology without becoming a question about only one object.
The target question still must ask the right thing. Asking how many books are present differs from asking which numbered book should be used. A source case ending or plural ending does not settle that semantic distinction. Determine whether the writer requests a count, identifies an item or specifies a rank before choosing the Kazakh construction.
A compound number keeps its value when only the final part becomes ordinal
The corpus explains ordinal formation through suffixes and illustrates он бес becoming он бесінші, fifteen becoming fifteenth. For a multiword number, the ordinal marking is attached to the final element in its described pattern. It does not convert the earlier element into a separate rank.
For a Lower Sorbian reference to a numbered stage or item, preserve the whole numerical value. A phrase identifying the fifteenth item must not become fifteen items, and the target’s ordinal ending must not be interpreted as adding another quantity after ten. Count and order use related numbers but make different instructions.
Across these patterns, the practical reading sequence is value first, function second and morphology third. Recover the Lower Sorbian count or rank, determine whether the source asks for a quantity or identifies an ordered item, then assemble the Kazakh expression. This preserves the actual instruction while allowing the target noun and numeral to carry grammatical information differently.
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