A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

4.1 Noun morphology 187

t-a-juhe t-i-jühaw-en 'witness'

t-a-kute t-i-kütaw-en 'alms'

t-a-matte t-i-msttaw-en 'crowd'

t-a-wakke t-i-wskkaw-en 'earthworm'

t-a-yatte t-i-yattaw-en 'mind'

[PI also t-ltw-en]

t-a-zsmme t-i-zammaw-en 'grass sp.'

t-e-gaese t-i-gaesaw-en (A-grm) 'lower back'

[Sg also t-e-jasse (T-ka); PI also t-l-gasa (A-grm)]

e-nsele i-n®law-aen (A-grm) 'millet'

[PI also i-nsele-ten (T-ka)]

t-s-Yule t-i-YÜlaw-en 'brownness''brownness' (VYWI) (VYWI)

t-3-sure t-i-süvaw-en 'redness' (Vswr)

t-a-zude t-i-züdaw-en 'sweetness'

t-a-zune t-i-zünaw-en 'half

t-s-ferre t-i-farraw-en 'empty lot'

1

t-skmo t-akmaw-en 'illness'

[PI also t-akma-t-en]

: [variant of i]

t-aekma t-aekmew-en 'painful sore' (R)

[PI also t-aekmiw-en]

For t-e-haedde 'reach', the usual PI is t-i-hadd (for this type see §4.1.2.24,
below). For the A-grm speaker I also recorded t-i-haddaw-en, which belongs
in (162.c), except for the ablaut-like shift of Sg ae to PI a. This shift was not
confirmed by other speakers and seems to be parasitic on the genuine ablaut
shift in the widespread and common PI variant t-i-hadd.
Exceptions with no vocalic change before FePl ...w-en (or MaPl ...w-asn)
are relatively few in number. Theys involve stable stem-final α or occasionally
e. See §4.1.2.6, above, for the known examples.
A shift of i to α like that in (162.b) above also occurs in some stems before
FePl -t-en. Unshifted forms are also attested for some of these stems. The
shifted examples known to me are in (163).

(163) Stem-Final i to α before FePl -t-en

singular plural gloss

t-a-häeri-t-t t-i-haeya-t-en (A-grm) 'oath'

t-e-hserri-t-t t-i-haerra-t-en (A-grm) 'lioness'

[PI also t-i-haerri-t-en]

t-e-käebbi-t-t t-i-kaebba-t-en 'date pit'