A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

4.1 Noun morphology 183

(158) PI i-CaCCaC-aen

singular plural gloss

e-waerwaer i-warwar-aen 'gum acacia tree'

[variant i-waerwaer-aen]

e-raenraer i-Yarrar-aen 'regg (flat area)'

(e/α, etc.) 4.1.2.10 First-stem-syllable Sg/Pl vocalic alternations

While I make a basic distinction between suffixal and ablaut plurals, there are
a number of basically suffixal plurals that also involve some modification of
the stem that falls short of true ablaut. I begin with cases where the stem
undergoes a slight change in the V of the first and/or second syllable (most of
the relevant stems are bisyllabic).
There are several types of shift in stem-initial V's in nouns (true stem
segments, not vocalic prefixes), from the unmarked Sg to the suffixal PI (with
MaPl -aen or FePl -en). The V-initial stems include some feminines with Fe
prefix t- preceding the stem-initial V. The most common shift is stem-initial e
to a. There are a few cases of stem-initial α to e and of i to a. The data are
given in (159).

(159) Stem-Initial Vowel Shift in Sg/Pl Pairs

singular plural gloss

a. e to α (stem-initial)

efaed afaed-aen (T-ka)

[PI also efd-an]

ejhaen ajhan-asn (T-ka)^1

[PI also eghan-aen A-grm]

ejmaes ajmas-aen

ekrar akrar-asn

[PI also ekrar-aen]

endael andal-aen

enhaer anhar-aen

[Sg also anhaer etc.]

eswael aswal-aen

emzaed amzad-aen

t-erse t-arsiw-en

t-ekle t-akliw-en

t-emde t-amdiw-en

t-ende t-andiw-en

t-esne t-asniw-en

'mark'

'hair'

'sheep or goat'

'treading'

'taste'

'mortar'

'character'

'branding iron'

'eyebrow'

'band of raiders'

'thumb'

'ram'

'thousand'