A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

4.1 Noun morphology 207

e. Sg t-a-CaPPuC-t, with Degemination

t-a-salluf-t t-l-sslf-en 'tick'

f. Sg t-a-CCaC-t

t-a-rrak-k t-l-vsrj-en 'book sack'

Here we see the same basic -CaCC- stem-shape in the PI, including
-CaCw- with nonlexical w (184.a, c-d), and the Degemination of medial
geminates (184.d-e).

4.1.2.15 Unsuffixed ablaut plurals

Unsuffixed ablaut plurals are common for noun stems that have vocalic
prefixes. Nearly all nouns that lack a vocalic prefix have suffixal plurals.
The PI vocalic prefix is -i- (FePl t-i-), as usual. The -i- reduces to schwa or
zero in the dependent state (e.g. as postverbal subject), again as usual. FeSg
suffix -t, inner Fe suffix -t-, MaPl -aen, and FePl -en are absent by definition
from unsuffixed ablaut plurals. While the stem-internal modifications are
"redundant" in the presence of the PI vocalic prefix, they can be the most
salient expression of plurality when the PI vocalic prefix -i- is reduced to
schwa or zero.
Quite a few nouns are attested with more than one plural, often a simple
suffixal plural coexisting with an unsuffixed ablaut plural. Some nouns also
have two or more variant unsuffixed ablaut plurals, at least when multiple
dialects are considered together. An example is Sg t-a-bakun-t 'heap', for
which the following plurals are attested: t-l-bkun-en (T-ka), t-i-bakkan (K),
t-i-bükan (K).
Normally the unsuffixed ablaut PI preserves the syllabic shape (except
for lengthening of the last vowel) and lexical accent of the Sg. Some apparent
exceptions can be explained by Syncope or Default Accent (§4.1.2.22). Some
real exceptions involve gemination and accent shift (§4.1.2.14, §4.1.2.23-4).
The dominant vocalic melody in unsuffixed ablaut plurals is . The
L melodic fragment attaches to the final V of the Sg stem, which is also
lengthened (if short) by ablaut formative χ-f, while the Η fragment fills out
the rest of the stem. The final syllable therefore always has a. In §4.1.2.14,
above, it was suggested that the same ablaut components are at work in one
type of plural with (masculine) -an or (feminine) -en. We will see in §4.1.2.24,
below, that a there is another, less common ablauted PI type with surface
melody that may reflect loss of an original stem-final low *a. An
alternative analysis would combine a strict melody with a formative a-f
that directly converts the final-syllable vowel to α. I am dubious about this,
since VblN α-f is elsewhere attested only as an option with heavy verbal
nouns, and with VblN's it only affects a; see (551) in §8.6.1.4).