A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

228 4 Nominal and pronominal morphology

a syncopated plural (§4.1.2.22, above); the gemination in (205.b-c) pre-empts
Syncope.

(205) Plurals with Medial Gemination

singular plural

a. Sg is VblN of type t-a-CCaC-t

gloss

t-a-ftaq-q t-i-fattar 'laying out'

t-a-rdar-t t-i-raddar 'betrayal'

t-a-rlaf-t t-i-rallaf 'entrusting'

t-a-Ymar-t t-i-vammar 'elbow'

t-a-rraf-t t-i-rarraf 'dry grazing'

[PI also t-l-rraf-en]

t-a-ryal-t t-i-rayyal 'courting'

t-a-mbar-t t-i-nabbar 'night pasturing'

t-a-rti-t-t t-i-rattay 'mixing'

[Sg equivalent to t-a-rtay-t-t]

b. Sg t-u-CvCuC-t

t-a-bakun-t

t-a-jazel-t

t-e-k&wen-t

c. Sg V-CvCuC

ae-haeyog

t-i-bakkan (K)

t-i-jazzal

t-i-kawwan

'heap'

'kidney'

'response'

i-hayyag (A-grm) 'wound'

d. irregular

t-ae-bbilaen-t t-i-ballan (A-grm) 'wrestling'

[T-ka: Sg t-abbilaen-t, suffixal PI t-abbllaen-en]

Except for the irregular (and dialectal) form for 'wrestling' (205.d), the
plurals given in (205) are basically consistent with the normal PI ablaut rules,
including the melody. However, we must add some other wrinkles.
Assuming that the Sg reveals the lexical form of the stem, we need to account
for the gemination of the medial C, the insertion of schwa, and the penultimate
accent seen in the plurals.
Since Schwa-Insertion here is epenthetic (breaking up triple clusters
created by gemination), it can piggyback on the gemination process. The
gemination and accent processes could be handled by ablaut components (of
the Γ and χ types), though it must be quickly added that these components are
not part of the productive, overall ablaut plural pattern. Since the Γ and χ
features are limited to the particular subtype of ablaut plural covered in this
section, it is best to add them to the normal plural ablaut components by rules
that depend on a prior scan of the input (i.e. Sg) stem, recognizing its basic