Welsh to Inuinnaqtun: establish whether “we” means two people or a larger group
A Welsh plural form leaves the size of the group open
A Welsh plan using ni can concern the speaker and one other person or a larger party. The National Centre for Learning Welsh’s Foundation guide presents ni in its plural verb paradigms. It does not supply a separate dual form there. An Inuinnaqtun translation may need to make a distinction that the isolated Welsh sentence leaves unstated.
Richard Compton’s study gives an Inuinnaqtun personal-pronoun paradigm with uvaguk for first-person dual and uvagut for first-person plural. The distinction concerns two versus a larger group. It is not a choice between more and less polite ways to translate the same number of participants.
For a Welsh walking arrangement, establish whether the speaker is meeting one companion or coordinating several walkers. Do not select a larger-group form merely because the Welsh verb is grammatically plural. Likewise, do not assume a dual because only the sender and recipient are visible in a messaging app; other participants may be included in the plan.
A pronoun’s grammatical role matters as well as its number
Compton explains that Inuktut personal pronouns inflect for case and discusses which pronouns commonly remain overt. In the Inuinnaqtun example translated as somebody explaining something to me, the recipient appears as uvamnun. A recipient form is not an alternative spelling of the independent subject form uvanga.
The study cautions against a blanket account of pronoun omission. Subject and direct-object pronouns can be omitted where the verb identifies their features, while pronouns also appear in oblique roles, verbless constructions and focus. Deleting every independent-looking form as redundant would therefore ignore its actual function.
A route-planning message might first say who will walk and then identify the person to whom directions were explained. The same speaker can appear in both statements with different grammatical roles. A change of target form does not necessarily introduce another person; the role has changed.
Do not confuse the party with the people receiving the message
A Welsh organiser may send a message to a large group while describing a two-person scouting walk. The audience is large, but the walkers are only two. Conversely, an individual message to one companion may describe a larger party’s departure. Count the participants in the event rather than the names displayed in the conversation.
If the source does not identify the party, keep the surrounding arrangement available during translation. A previous sentence naming the two scouts can resolve the intended reference of ni. An isolated translation of we will go cannot recover that information from nothing.
Then distinguish the departure plan from the direction-giving event. Who walks, who explains and who receives the explanation need not be the same set. The target should preserve each allocation instead of allowing a familiar pronoun match to spread one group interpretation across the whole exchange.
The pronoun examples discussed here are specifically identified as Inuinnaqtun in Compton’s study. The paper also contains data from other Inuktut varieties. Keep those varieties distinct when checking a final translation, rather than importing a neighbouring variety’s form simply because its English gloss appears to match.
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