Tibetan to Slovak: a travelling companion is different from a means of travel
With and by do not form one target construction
Jäschke’s historical Tibetan grammar describes དང་ in with-type relationships and separately identifies instrumental or agent particles such as གིས་. These descriptions concern different functions in the source. A translator should not collapse them into one broad relationship merely because an English gloss can use with in several settings.
The Slovake.eu case lesson distinguishes Slovak accompaniment with s and the instrumental from means expressed by a bare instrumental. It contrasts travelling with friends and travelling by bus. A Tibetan account of a journey must preserve which noun names a companion and which names the vehicle. The target grammatical case alone does not settle that distinction.
The person and vehicle can occur in the same journey
The lesson gives s bratom for with a brother and autobusom for by bus. Their different constructions allow a single journey to contain both a human companion and a transport method without confusing their roles.
When the Tibetan source mentions an agent, a companion, and an instrument, assign those relationships separately. An instrument is not automatically another actor, and a companion is not a tool used to perform the action. Replacing every marked source noun with a Slovak s phrase can make the transport method sound like company; omitting s from a companion phrase can lose the intended accompaniment.
A source suffix does not determine the target word’s final letters
Jäschke describes several historical written instrumental variants whose selection depends on the preceding Tibetan final letter. Recognizing those variants is useful for interpreting an older text, but their shapes do not predict the Slovak noun’s inflection.
The Slovake.eu examples include several different bare instrumental forms for vehicles, including vlakom and električkou. Selecting the corresponding target noun requires its own grammatical form. A change in the source particle’s spelling is not evidence that the type of transport changed, and a different target instrumental ending need not identify a different relationship to the journey.
A fixed position uses another combination of meaning and case
The Slovak lesson also describes instrumental phrases after spatial prepositions such as pod and nad for fixed position. Thus an instrumental target form can describe where something is, not merely an instrument or companion. Context and the preposition remain essential.
Jäschke’s historical Tibetan account likewise presents relational particles with several spatial interpretations. In translating a source description of luggage under a seat, do not treat the marked seat as the vehicle, actor, or travelling companion. Identify the spatial relationship before rebuilding the Slovak phrase. The practical contrast in this direction is between what performs an action, what assists or accompanies it, and where something is located. Those relationships can involve case marking in both languages while requiring different constructions; matching case labels or isolated endings is not enough to preserve them.
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