A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

256 5 Noun phrase structure

ά-di t-attaer

so LoImpf-look.for.LoImpfP

[a lae-n]

[Dem have.PerfP-3MaPlS

[d [a lae-naet

[and [Dem have.PerfP-3FePlS

"•0-saerer-aen]

Pl-firewood-MaPl]

"t-a-züzam]]

Pl-firewood-MaPl]]

'So, (go) look for some firewood and some charcoal.'

haerast

thing

'a few cows'

an

Poss

n0-w-an

Pl-cow-MaPl

For indefinite 'a(n)' and plural 'some', and the possibly related forms
meaning 'other', see §5.1.2.3 above.
The sense 'most oF can be expressed using the noun t-assam 'majority'
with a possessor, e.g. t-assam-naenaer 'most of us'.
The sense 'both' can be expressed by the forms in (243), recorded for a
K-d speaker.

(243) a. aemmu-n da-di-dsev
die.PerfP-3MaPl there.NearDist
i-ssan-aen
3MaSgS-be.two.Reslt-Partpl.MaSg
'They-Ma both died.'

b. aemmu-t-naet da-di-daer t-i assan-en

die.PerfP-3FePl there.NearDist Fe be.two.Reslt-Partpl.Pl

'They-Fe both died.'

The relationship between the masculine (243.a) and feminine (243.b) is

irregular, especially since (243.a) ends in the MaSg Partpl suffix -aen while

(243.b) ends in PI Partpl suffix -en. For Algeria, DTF 4.1841 gives masculine

"essenen" (presumably assan-aen) in the sense 'both' ("tous 2"), with feminine

"essenetin" or "tessenetin," presumably (t)assaen-aet-en with a Feminine

morpheme -aet- as seen in personal pronouns.

For '(be/do) very much, a lot', see the verb -vknu- (§13.5.5).

5.1.2.9 Days of the week

The seven days of the week have Arabic names, as is true of all other

languages of northern Mali: litni 'Monday', seltaendta 'Tuesday', aellarba

'Wednesday', alxamis 'Thursday', alziimTat 'Friday', assabat 'Saturday',

aelhadd 'Sunday'.