$ perl -Mstrict -Mwarnings -E '
    sub lowercase {
        return (map { lc } @_)[wantarray ? (0 .. $#_) : 0];
    }

    my (@me, $me);
    @me = lowercase( qw( TQIS Jim ) ) ;  ## returns qw( tqis jim )
    say "@me";
    $me = lowercase( q{Jim} ) ;           ## returns q{jim}
    say "$me";
    @me = lowercase( qw( Jim ) ) ;       ## returns qw( jim )
    say "@me";
'
tqis jim
jim
jim

##</code><code>##

(map { lc } @_)[0 .. wantarray * $#_]