A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

142 3 Phonology

(su), but in R it remains unrounded in the 3MaPl Shlmpf (si). In -muttvsu-, the
lexical u is separated from the stem-final full V by an intervening syllable. I
conclude that u-Spreading (which spreads the rounding feature) applies over
an intervening syllable only when the original u is shortened to a.
For more on short imperfectives, see §7.2.3.
There are also some shortenings of expected u to a in VblN's and other
nominalizations.

(118) Verbal Nouns

gloss PerfP LoImpfP VblN

a. no shortening in VblN (-CüCCvC-)

'be obligatory' -ahhussael- -t-lhassul- a-hiissal

'freeze' -aqqurhaes- -t-rvarhus- a-rürhas

b. no shortening in VblN (unaugmented -CüCCu-)

'go south' -ajjussa- -t-Tjassu- a-jüss

'be detached' -affugga- -t-lfaggu- a-fugg

c. shortening in VblN (uinaugmented -CüCCu-)

'load' -ajjujja- -t-ajasjja- a-jajj

d. shortening in VblN (augmented -CüCCu-)

'gulp' -aqqubbae-t -t-lrabbu-t ά-vabbu

'scrub' -affüffaerae-t -t-ifaffaru-t a-faffaru

Medial V-Shortening occurs reliably in the VblN for augmented verbs of
the stem-shape -CuCCu- (118.d). Note that these VblN's end in a full V, while
the VblN's in (118.a-c) lack such a final V. There is no shortening in
-CuCCvC- stems (118.a), since these C-final verbs have short V's in their final
syllables.
The unaugmented type -CuCCu- is divided: (118.b) has a VblN with
unshortened u, while 'load' in (118.c) does shorten /u/ to a. The verbs in
(118.b-c) also have divergent vocalic melodies in the (long and short)
imperfective systems, so the variation in vocalism is not confined to the VblN.
'Load' in (118.c) has a Niger Tamajak cognate, whose VblN "agaggi"
preserves a final i (LTF2:83).
Not shown in (118) are a other types of nominalization, e.g. ajjajru
'sterility' (cf. PerfP -ajjujra- 'be sterile'), see (563) in §8.6.5.
These rules may also be operative in verbs like 'be churned' (PerfP -andu-,
Imprt andu, LoImpfP -niddu-). The relevant verbs are the u/u subtype, and
perhaps also the α/u subtype, of -vCCu- verbs (§7.3.1.4). Though the analysis
is not transparent, the idea is to take the basic form as -undu- with the u initial
rather than final, and account for e.g. Imprt andu as the result of u-Spreading