A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

3.5 Syntactically controlled phonological processes 147

work, at least if "prosodic" phrases are defined in a manner relevant to actual
prosody.

3.5.1 Prefix Reduction of nouns (dependent state)

An important morphological process affecting nouns is that associated with
dependent state (in French usually « etat d'annexion »). This "state" is a
cover term for the following syntactic positions: a) complement of a
preposition (dative, possessive, locative), b) compound final (in a few tight
compound constructions like that with erk 'bad', §5.2.4.4); and c) subject
immediately following an inflected verb. In all three cases, the noun in
question can be said to "depend on" an immediately preceding word or stem.
If a noun that has a vocalic prefix consisting of a full V (i.e. a noun
beginning with Sg α-, e-, t-α-, t-e-, or PI i- or t-i-) occurs in dependent state,
directly following the preposition, compound initial, or verb on which it
"depends," the prefix undergoes Prefix Reduction. There is no other
morphological indication of dependent state (for example, there is no case-
marking of subject or prepositional complement), so Prefix-Reduction itself is
as close as we come in this language to structural case-marking. Note that
nouns that do not have a full-V prefix undergo no (audible) reduction of the
prefix.
I use the diacritic^1 before a noun to indicate that it has undergone audible
Prefix Reduction. I do not use the diacritic for other nouns (e.g. those lacking a
full-V vocalic prefix), even when they occur in syntactic positions associated
with dependent state.
The relevant shifts are given in (125).

(125) Reduced Forms of Full-V Nominal Prefixes

category unreduced form reduced form

a. MaSg α-, e- ae- if next syllable has (ae α e o}

ae- if the noun has no other syllable

[e-mm 'mouth' "'ae-mm]

9- if next syllable has {a i u}

b. MaPl i- 3- before CC

0- before single C

c. FeSg t-α-, t-e- t-ae- if next syllable has {ae α e ο}

t-a- before CC plus {a i u}

t-3- (dialectally ""t-0-) before a

single C plus {a i u}

[no example of monosyllabic stem]