266 5 Noun phrase structureAt least one noun appears to be frozen compounds beginning with a
variant of ma 'mother', but Arabic ?umm- 'mother' or its HassAr reflex umm
(PI umm-aat) is involved. A noun meaning 'gum of Commiphora tree', is
attested dialectally as mataelxaeyr, mataslxer, or limmaslxer. These are
evidently from a HassAr compound umm 1-xayr 'mother of goodness', with
partial replacement of HassAr umm- by forms closer to its Tamashek
counterpart mo 'mother' (PI matte-). Another, more difficult case is
t-a-maett-äedan-t 'lower intestine', which appears to contain adan 'intestines'.
One might connect -maett- historically with 'mother', but this would have to
have been frozen into an unsegmentable stem, with resulting addition of
regular nominal prefixes. Alternatively, t-a-maett-äedan-t could be a frozen
de verbal nominal from a lost Passive (-tt-) verb of some type.
The last kin compounds considered here involve fomba (T-ka) or famba
(Ansongo-Gourma) added to a 'mother' term (annd, ma). The compound may
be glossed 'stepmother', but the most common sense is 'mother's co-wife'
(when the father has two or more wives). Attested forms are anna fomba
(Timbuktu) and ma famba (Ansongo). For Timbuktu I also recorded a
masculine counterpart abba fomba 'stepfather'. The compound final is
borrowed from Songhay (e.g. Koyraboro Senni naa fumba 'step-mother,
mother's co-wife'), and the Tamashek dialects that have these compounds are
those near the Niger River in contact with Songhay.
5.2.4.3 Some 'gazelle' compounds
In the specific case of u-damitt (variant u-damit) 'young male gazelle', the u-
seems to be frozen to the stem, and the structure of the compound is opaque,
though a loose connection to e-dasm 'gazelle' (FeSg t-e-daemi-t-t) is probably
still felt by native speakers. The frozenness is shown by retention of u- in
ablaut PI ύ-dmatt. The FeSg t-u-damit-t 'young female gazelle', and FePl
t-u-damit-en, can alternatively be segmented with the (first) t as part of the
stem, though the feminines could also be segmented with -t-t and -t-en. The
stem-final t (or tt), though now used even in the masculine forms, may have
originated by reanalysis of the feminine forms.
A-grm has asw damitt, arguably fused as asw-damitt, cf. MaPl
aew-damitt-aen, FeSg t-aew-damitt (or t-aew-damit-t or t-aew-dami-t-t) and
FePl t-aew damitt-en.
The reference here is to Gazella rufifrons, one of three gazelle spp.
5.2.4.4 Compounds with erk, t-erk 'bad'
A construction meaning 'bad Χ' (X = any noun) is formed with Ma erk or Fe
t-erk followed by the simple noun. The feminine form is often reduced to t-er
before the t- that begins most feminine nouns. The plural is expressed by