Had been verbing?

[Dreamlight]

Is there an established way of expressing the pluperfect progressive (or pluperfect continuous) form of the verb (had been verbing)?  Or does the lack of such a form mean that the language falls back on the simple pluperfect (had verbed)?  (Languages without progressive tenses at all generally use the simple tense.)

[wm.annis]

Is there an established way of expressing the pluperfect progressive (or pluperfect continuous) form of the verb (had been verbing)?  Or does the lack of such a form mean that the language falls back on the simple pluperfect (had verbed)?  (Languages without progressive tenses at all generally use the simple tense.)

Na'vi does not have any sort of perfect at all (the perfective is a rather different thing, an annoying confusion of names).

What are you wanting to say with your pluperfect?  In English we often use this for a "past anterior" sense, that is "past of the past" when the main clause is already in the past.  Based on a usage of Frommer, I suspect a basic perfective answers to the anterior sense.

  oel poru pamlltxe aylì'uti a stolawm oel I told him what ("the words") I had heard.

[kewnya txamew'itan]

Based on a usage of Frommer, I suspect a basic perfective answers to the anterior sense.

  oel poru pamlltxe aylì'uti a stolawm oel I told him what ("the words") I had heard.

That's what I'd assume Dreamlight meant, the problem is when that anterior become continuous "I had been hearing". In these instances, I'd probably go with <arm> but I'm not entirely comfortable with it.

[Alìm Tsamsiyu]

This reminds me somewhat of Norm's line from the movie, where he says "I have studied 5 years" and uses ftolia.

If this sentence were said in English, it'd probably be more along the lines of "I have been studying for 5 years," as studying/learning is always a continual process. (I wish I knew what the subtitle was there, perhaps someone can help?).

Other than that, I think that if you want to use <arm> to express it, you'd need more context:

"Ayzìsìt amrr oe fteria vay set" or perhaps "Ayzìsìt amrr oe fteria sreset."
"Five years I am studying up to now" |or| "Five years I am studying before now."
Ultimately conveying: "I have been studying for five years."

Here I used just <er>, giving more of a present perfect feel, but with <arm> I think it could easily translate to "I had been studying for five years."

Granted, the <er> infix doesn't define any stopping point for the action, it just seems that with the past/<am> infix, that the action is in the past and doesn't continue into the present.

Anyway, that's my two hundredths of a dollar.

[Tirea Aean]

This reminds me somewhat of Norm's line from the movie, where he says "I have studied 5 years" and uses ftolia.

If this sentence were said in English, it'd probably be more along the lines of "I have been studying for 5 years," as studying/learning is always a continual process. (I wish I knew what the subtitle was there, perhaps someone can help?).

Other than that, I think that if you want to use <arm> to express it, you'd need more context:

"Ayzìsìt amrr oe fteria vay set" or perhaps "Ayzìsìt amrr oe fteria sreset."
"Five years I am studying up to now" |or| "Five years I am studying before now."
Ultimately conveying: "I have been studying for five years."

Here I used just <er>, giving more of a present perfect feel, but with <arm> I think it could easily translate to "I had been studying for five years."

Granted, the <er> infix doesn't define any stopping point for the action, it just seems that with the past/<am> infix, that the action is in the past and doesn't continue into the present.

Anyway, that's my two hundredths of a dollar.

dont know if you saw Prrton's update a while back, if you say five years, its actually zìsìt amrr...not ayzìsìt amrr...but yeah other than that, I get your point...is weird that Norm says ftolia in that situation.

I agree with annis as well.