jeff_l
(Jeff_L)
#1
288 6 Prepositions
(291) Pronominal Paradigm of daraet 'behind'
person Sg PI
1 dar-i,ι ' ι dar-er dara-naer
2Ma dara-k dara-wwaen
2Fe dara-m dara-kmaet
3Ma dara-s dara-ssaen
3Fe " dara-snaet
The related noun is dam 'rear', as in adverbial phrase as dara 'in the rear'.
An alternative preposition daffar is mainly characteristic of Tawellemmett,
but is used to some extent in A-grm alongside daraet.
The sense can be spatial ('behind the house') or temporal (292).
(292) [ad addar-aen] aeddinast dara-s
[Fut be.alive.ShImpf-3MaPlS] people behind-3Sg
'The people will live on after him;' [K]
6.6 Compound prepositions
6.6.1 'beside' (daedes or d "ae-des, daegman)
For T-ka, the form for 'beside, next to' is phonetic [dae'des]. It might still be
segmentable as d "'ae-des ... 'by the side (of...)', itself a prepositional phrase.
However, the underlying noun (without the first preposition d) does not occur
synchronically in these dialects. In the adverbial PP as daedes 'to the side',
daedes clearly functions as a noun. With pronominals, we get e.g. lSg
dasdes-in 'beside me', 1P1 daedes-naenaev 'beside us', 3Sg dasdes-annet
'beside him/her/it'. The endings here are possessive rather than prepositional, a
vestige of the nominal origin of daedes.
In other dialects (Gao, K, R, T-md) the form in isolation of this preposition
is [e'des], which I transcribe e-des. It has the look of a simple noun with Sg
prefix e-, and is obviously the lost noun underlying the T-ka variant daedes.
However, e-des often functions as a simple preposition. In the lSg the ending
is -in (R) or -i (K): e-des-in, e-des-i 'beside me'. R also allows a lSg dative
ending: e-des-\ha-hi 'beside me', and this is the form recorded for some Gao-
area dialects. For K, other forms are 3Sg e-des-annet, 1P1 e-des-\ha-naer, and
3MaPl e-des-\ha-saen. Evidently the pronominal endings are a mix of
possessive suffixes and dative clitics, perhaps sensitive to person-number-
gender features. The corresponding adverbial phrase is s e-des 'to the side'.
For Τ, I recorded s t-e-des-t-in 'beside me*.
For A-grm I recorded an alternative preposition daegman, as in
Tawellemmett (Niger). This is another instance of fusion of a nominal
