Uyghur grammar lesson - perfective verbal adjective

Suffix -qan/ğan/kən/gən is used to form the perfective verbal adjective that corresponds to the Chinese -lede adjectives. In English it's a bit complicated because there doesn't exist one single common way of expressing this idea. But with the analogy of the present verbal adjective -digan, which normally translates as -ing, the perfective can be understood as 'having done...'. So when you use this structure in Uyghur, it is as if you could say 'the having laughed man', or 'the having left bus'. Sounds far better to say 'the man that laughed/has laughed' or 'the bus that has left', but English is cumbersome with the lack of a similar structure.

Sometimes English is less wordy, but less precise. For example, - bolğan is usually translated into an adjective in English: xapa bolğan adəm 'angry man' (lit. 'having become angry man'). In a lot of cases as in this one, 'present' concepts are actually expressed through 'past' means. This is not unique to Turkish, though. English does not have a clean-cut perfective. In languages that do, e.g. Greek and Persian, actions in the past tense have a present implication. If you 'have become angry', you are angry at the moment because the action of becoming was momentary. It happened, you reached the stage, and the stage of anger continues in the present.

More examples:

xapa bolğan əpəndi
angry having-become mister
'an angry gentleman'

tünügün bu yərgə kəlgən kişi
yesterday this place-to having-come person
'the person that came yesterday'

xoş degən awaz
good-bye having-said voice
'voice saying good-bye'


This form of the verb can end a sentence, but it remains non-personal, unless followed by the verb 'imək' (to be) in the past tense to specify the subject.

Tünügün telefon qilip degən idim.
Yesterday phonecall making having-said I-was
'I said it on the phone yesterday.'

Mən kutupxaniğa barğan.
I        library-to   having-gone
'I went to the library.'

Xuda asman bilən yərni yaratqan.
God   heaven with earth having-made
'God created the heaven and the earth.'

And finally, guess what? This 'adjectival form' can also be used as nouns! You can add suffixes such as -da and -liq to it to make funky words:

Nan yeginim yoq.
bread having-eaten-my there-isn't
'I don't have bread or anything to eat.'

Şundaq degəndə...
thus     speaking-at
'When saying this...'

Uniņ kəlgənliki, bizgə paydiliq idi.
His having-come-ness-his we-to beneficial was
'It was good for us that he came.'