Persian to Georgian: a changed case ending does not necessarily reverse a transaction
Identify the transaction before matching markers
A Persian account of buying or returning an object identifies participants through the verb and surrounding phrases. Georgian can mark those participants differently across verbal constructions. A change in a noun’s case ending should not automatically be read as a reversal of who performed the action.
The University of Texas Persian lesson contrasts seeing Hasan’s mother with returning a teapot to her. In the first example the person is a direct object marked with rā; in the second she is introduced with be while the returned object receives rā. Being a specific person does not alone determine the marking.
The Georgian Universal Dependencies overview describes tense-aspect-mood series as relevant to case marking and agreement among participants. It lists subjects in nominative, ergative, or dative, and direct objects in nominative or dative. These documented possibilities rule out a simple translation method that assigns each Persian role one permanent Georgian case ending.
Follow a purchase through its later return
Imagine a Persian-speaking customer explaining to a Georgian-speaking shop assistant that a neighbour bought a lamp and later returned it. This original shop scenario has a buyer, a seller, and an object moving through two transactions. The return need not make the seller the original buyer or turn the lamp into the person performing an action.
A later sentence may report that the assistant refunded the neighbour. That is another event with its own direction. Preserve the person receiving the refund separately from the object returned. A translation can retain all the right names while still reversing the practical relationship between payment and receipt.
If the source reports only that the lamp reached the shop, it does not establish that the refund was issued. Delivery, acceptance of a return, and reimbursement are distinct milestones. Keep each confirmation tied to its own verb rather than letting one completed action imply that the entire transaction is finished.
A target verb form must be reviewed with its participants
The Georgian overview also documents agreement with objects as well as subjects in relevant verb patterns. A short-looking verb can therefore contain participant information beyond the person acting. Do not assume that a marker resembling an object reference identifies the buyer independently of the verb’s full construction.
When checking the result, compare complete events rather than isolated endings: the neighbour bought the lamp, the neighbour returned it, and the assistant refunded the neighbour if that is what the source states. These are English descriptions of the original scenario, not invented Georgian model sentences. They provide a practical way to detect an unintended role reversal.
Keep dates, names, and any source-provided distinction between the customer and the person acting on their behalf. Someone returning a purchase for a neighbour need not be its buyer. For Persian to Georgian, preserving the transaction requires interpreting the target verbal pattern together with case and agreement, while avoiding assumptions that the source never makes.
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