3.4 Ablaut 113The gloss 'scrape off' in (84.a) is abbreviated from '(donkey) scrape off
(e.g. tree bark) with teeth'.
In (84.a), we see the overt
«HHHLL» (dialectally «HHLLL»). The perfective in (84.b) shows stem-wide
but undergoes a rule spreading L to the left. See §3.4.6, below, for more
examples and discussion
Some (brief) dialectal details. First, in (84.a), 'do' is shown as having an
optional initial short V, e.g. PerfP -ja- or -aja-. The variation is dialectal, and
to some extent depends on the verb.
Second, the initial schwa in PerfP -annutfaes- and -affuffaerae-t in (84.a) is
valid for T-ka but generally not for the other dialects, which have initial ae
when the following syllable has a full high vowel u or i, though they agree
with T-ka in the schwa-initial perfective vocalism of superheavy stems like
'scrape off and 'be slippery' when the second perfective syllable has a short
V. Thus R, K-d, and T-md have PerfP -aennutfaes- and -aeffuffasrae-t with
initial ae, alongside PerfP -azzalbasbbaey- and (K-d) -ajjarnaennaewae-t with
initial schwa. One could interpret the T-ka initial a in -annutfaes- and
-affuffaerae-t as reflecting /ae/ via Short-V Harmony, but a T-ka speaker would
have no evidence (from within the T-ka dialect) that the V was underlying /ae/.
The Shlmpf
(85) Short Imperfective Verb (<L H> melody)lexical form Shlmpf gloss-vbsu- -zebs (/-aebsi-/) 'vomit'
-jujju- -aejjajj (/-sejjajji-/) 'load up'The composite quality of this melody does not strike the ear immediately,
since hi is deleted word-finally. However, it appears as a before a C-initial
subject suffix, as in Future ad absa-nast 'they-Fe will vomit', and it combines
with /a;/ at the beginning of a subject suffix to give a, as in Futue ad absa-n
'they-Ma will vomit' (for /aebsi-aen/).
In A-grm and to a lesser extent some other non-Timbuktu-area dialects,
there are at least some cases of <L H> melody for long imperfectives of
unaugmented V-final stems. For example, for -vPQu- verbs T-ka has PerfP
-P0QQ-, treated phonologically as /-PaQQA-/ with stem-final deletable L
vowel, showing stem-wide <L> melody. In some eastern dialects, this -PaQQ-
can at least optionally be treated phonologically as /-PaQQI-/ with stem-final
deletable Η vowel, so the melody is <L H>. An overt stem-final Η vowel
occurs in a few A-grm paradigms. For example, the LoImpfP of 'hear' (-vsli>)
is -sail- (most dialects), with an optional variant -sdllu- in A-grm (-salla- is
also attested dialectally).