A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

370 7 Verbal morphology

j. -CvCCvCCvCu- (+ -t)

'scrape off -ajjsmaennaewae-t -I· -t-ajasrnaennaewa-t

jaernaennaewae-t

We see Stem-Initial Syncope in (372.e-h), i.e. in superheavy stems

beginning CvCV... in basic forms. These verbs generally have <H> melody in

long and short imperfectives. The nonadjectival middleweight stems (372.a-c)

and the superheavy stems whose onset does not allow Stem-Initial Syncope

(372.i-j) show C,-Gemination. These verbs have <L> melody in long and short

imperfectives. For all these verbs, the inflectable Shlmpf (not shown) has the

same consonantal onset pattern as the PerfP, e.g. Shlmpf -aebbaskae-t (372.a)

and -sjrars-t (372.e).

The PerfP type CaeCa-t in (372.d), an adjectival verb pattern, can add

V-initial (as well as C-initial) subject suffixes to the -t- form, unlike the case

with other augment verbs (where -t- disappears before V-initial suffixes). Thus

the PerfP forms of 'be spotted' are 3MaSg maeja-t, 3MaPl mseja-t-aen, and

lSg maeja-t-aer. These T-ka forms have not been checked for other dialects.

One might speculate that type (372.g), with final u in the long

imperfectives (and VblN), applies to verbs that originally had a medial full u

(e.g. Imprt *CaCuCC3-t), but later reduced the *u to a before a CC cluster.

This speculation is based on the fact that verbs with medial u can spread the

rounding feature to the V of the following syllable in certain paradigmatic

forms in some other verb classes (§7.3.1.16, §3.4.9.3).

The VblN of augmented verbs is of the same general type as for other

heavy verbs: vocalic prefix α-, stem-wide <H> melody. However, unlike the

case with other verbs, including both C-final verbs and non-augment V-final

verbs, the VblN of augmented verbs is unaccented, and therefore shows

default antepenultimate accent. The Augment is absent as it is in all nominals.

For the middleweight pattern -CvCu- (+ -t), the "regular" VblN ά-CaCu/i

(with lexical choice between i and u as in long imperfectives) is productive in

T-ka, but other dialects such as K-d prefer a distinct pattern ae-CaCu/i.

Examples are a-lsllawi for -lvllvwu- (+ -t) 'rinse' (372.i), a-jrari for

-jvrvru- (+ -t) 'be dying' (372.e), and either ά-kamu or ae-kamu depending on

dialect for -kvmu- (+ -t) 'gather' (372.b).

For adjectival verbs, including all of those in (372.d), the normal VblN

patterns are replaced by a distinct abstractive nominal (§8.6.5). For more on

VblN's see §8.6.1.

7.3.1.7 C-final full- V-medial-Cv(C)CvC- and -CvCvCvC-

Verbs that have one full V, in medial rather than final or initial position, have
basic shapes (best seen in the Imprt) -CuCCvC-, -CuCvC-, and -CvCuCvC-,
where as usual "υ" represents a full vowel and "v" a short vowel. The
vocalism is somewhat tricky in these verbs, but I prefer an analysis where the