Welsh to Central Kurdish: comparative form and the standard of comparison
Welsh uses more than one way to form a comparative
The official Welsh Foundation guide contrasts short adjectives with -ach against longer adjectives expressed with mwy. Its examples distinguish talach, taller, from yn fwy gofalus, more careful. It also lists irregular comparisons, so a Welsh comparative cannot always be recognized by finding a single repeated ending.
W. M. Thackston’s Sorani grammar describes comparative -tir, illustrating gawra, big, and gawratir, bigger. A Welsh-to-Central-Kurdish translation should therefore preserve the degree of the quality rather than the source’s number of words. The separate Welsh mwy does not require an additional target word if the Sorani comparative form supplies the relevant meaning. Conversely, an unfamiliar Welsh irregular form should not be translated as a plain adjective just because it lacks -ach.
Na and nag introduce what the source compares against
The Welsh guide teaches na or nag after comparative expressions, with nag before a vowel. Thackston identifies la as a Sorani comparison preposition and illustrates comparing today’s temperature with yesterday’s.
For an original Welsh message about choosing a quieter room, the comparison may be with another room, the previous visit, or an expected noise level. A target comparative without the intended standard can leave a different practical meaning. If the Welsh says one room is quieter than the hall, do not make the hall the quiet room simply because its noun follows the source comparison expression.
The variation between na and nag also does not introduce two different standards or a change in speaker. It belongs to the Welsh construction. Recover which entity is described and which supplies the comparison, then interpret the Sorani phrase expressing that relationship. A spatial meaning associated with a preposition elsewhere should not replace the comparison meaning required here.
A superlative makes a different claim
Thackston describes superlative -tirîn and notes that such adjectives precede the nouns they modify. The Welsh guide separately illustrates identifying the tallest person and the most careful person, rather than equating those with ordinary comparisons between two named individuals.
An original Welsh recommendation that one route is shorter than another does not establish that it is the shortest available route. A Central Kurdish superlative would introduce a broader ranking unless the source actually supplies that claim. Likewise, a Welsh assertion about the most careful worker should not be weakened to merely more careful without preserving what the comparison concerns.
Word order is part of the target construction as well. A superlative adjective placed before its Sorani noun should not be moved solely to imitate the position of Welsh material. Interpret the complete target noun phrase: which route or person is being described, what quality is ranked, and among which relevant alternatives? This prevents a change in grammatical packaging from becoming a change in the recommendation itself. The correct comparative or superlative must preserve the source relationship, not simply suggest that the target is generally favorable.
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