A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

3.3 Accent 95

For example, laz 'hunger, famine' is unaccented, so accent appears on a
preceding preposition, as in dsev laz 'in the famine'. With an unaccented
bisyllabic preposition like jannsj 'above' (compare jannaj-i 'above me'), we
might expect #pnn3j laz with accent on the antepenult of the phrase, but
instead we get jannsj laz with accent on the final of the next-to-last word. This
applies to all [xx y] accentual phrases, with unaccented monosyllabic y, that I
have recorded. I conclude that it is a principle of Tamashek accentology.
Not all sequences of words can form accentual phrases. The major word
sequences that can (72.a) and cannot (72.b) form accentual phrases are given
below.

(72) Syntax of Accentual Phrases

a. combinations that form accentual phrases

verb + noun (subject or object)

pre verb + verb (+ noun)

preposition + noun

demonstrative + verb or participle (if the demonstrative is the

head of a definite relative)

numeral + noun

b. combinations that do not form accentual phrases

noun + noun

noun + participle

noun + demonstrative

(72.b) can be summarized as follows: a noun cannot form an accentual
phrase with a following word, even within NP's. Thus prosodic groupings
are independent of (pure) syntactic groupings.
Examples showing [(x)x y] phrasal accents are in (73).

(73) Accentual Phrases with Phrasal Accent

verb + subject

a. ajba;r-aen-\t am-an

surround.PerfP-3MaPlS -\3MaSgO water-MaPl

'Water [lit. "waters"] surrounded it'

verb + object

b. snhasy-Eer hasraet

see.PerfP-lSgS thing

Ί saw a thing'