[tlhIngan Hol] Not just cool. Sub-zero rura-pente cool.

[SuStel]

On 7/25/2019 3:32 PM, mayqel qunen'oS wrote:
> SuStel:
> > jIghe'choHpu' I became transformed
> > (you're describing having completed a
> > transformation, whether it happened in
> > the past or future).
>
> hmm.. Interesting.. But now I wonder..
>
> When I read {jIghe'pu'}, I understand "I have been transformed". 
> (completed event).
>
> However, the use of {-pu'} on this occasion, gives the meaning, that 
> "I have been transformed, but perhaps later this transformation 
> un-happened".
>
> Whereas, if we say {jIghe'} then this means "I am transformed" i.e. 
> "my transformation still continues".
>
> Is my understanding correct ?

*ghe'* is a "be verb."

Let's look at a simpler "be verb" that doesn't sound perfective in English.

*Quch* /be happy/

*jIQuch*/I am happy./ Either this is a description of a particular 
moment in which I am happy, or it's a general description of my state.

*jIQuchpu'*/I was happy/. My state of happiness was completed. I may or 
may not be happy at some other time, but at the time being described my 
state of happiness ended.

Now let's go the new word. It's a more complicated translation in 
English, but in Klingon isn't just another "be verb." Syntactically, 
it's completely identical to *Quch.*

*ghe'*/be transformed, transmuted, metamorphosed, totally altered./

This is describing a state, not an action.

*jIghe'* /I am transformed./ I am in an altered state, some other state 
than the one before.

*jIghe'pu'*/I was transformed./ I was in an altered state, but that 
altered state has come to an end. I may or may not be in an altered 
state now, but the altered state being described ended.

*jIghe'pu'* /I was transformed/ does not mean *vIghe'moHlu'pu'*/I was 
transformed./ That's just a trick of English grammar. One says I was in 
an altered state; the other says someone did something to change me.

-- 
SuStel
http://trimboli.name

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