A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

7.3 Verb classes and irregular verbs 377

Later, in (379), I will present a handful of -dCvC- and -uCCvC- verbs that
have different paradigms featuring initial u at least in the perfectives.
In (377), 'tie' represents the bulk of -uCvC- verbs, 'go up' represents the
special cases of -uCvC- where Q is w, and '(animal) die' represents -uCCvC-
with medial cluster.

(377) -uCvC- and -uCCvC- Stems

'tie' 'go up' '(animal) die'

-ujvy- -uwvn- (w-medial) -UYSvy-

a. perfective system

PerfP -ojasy- -aewwaen-

Reslt -ojay- -aewwdn-

PerfN -ojey- -aewwen-

-OYsaey-

-orsay-

-OYsey-

[for dialectal variants of the 'go up' type, see (378), below]

b. short imperfective system

Shlmpf -ajay-

Imprt ajay

c. long imperfective system

LoImpfP -t-ijsy-

LoImpfN -t-Tjay-

Prohib -t-ljay-

-awsn-

awsn

-t-lwsn-

-t-lwan-

-t-lwan-

-aYsay-

arsay

-t-lrssy-

-t-lYsay-

-t-lYsay-

d. nominalization

VblN yjuy aggan 'lYssy [e'Ysi]

Since the PerfP forms end in ...aeC- (with short V), the PerfN ablaut

formative e-pclf audibly converts /ae/ to e, and the Resit accent and length

formatives are also audible. Since the stems are light, there are not enough

syllables to allow long imperfective formative χ-f to apply, but χ-pcl and

χ-pcl in the LoImpfP are evident.

Leaving aside the perfectives of 'go up' for the moment, we observe

perfective o, short imperfective a, and characteristic long imperfective i. These

alternations are difficult to make sense of in terms of normal Tamashek verb

ablaut and associated phonology. The following points may help.

First, PerfP -o(C)CaeC- might be derived from /-u(C)CvC-/ if we overlay a

perfective <L> melody and allow V-Height Compromise to combine lexical u

with <L> to give mid-height vowel o. PerfP -aedobaen- 'marry' (§7.3.1.7,

above) is a much clearer case of u plus <L> becoming ο in the same ... CvC-

position in a stem. The derivation is much less transparent for the perfectives

in (377) because there is much less evidence from other MAN stems and

derivatives for a lexical stem-initial u in 'tie' or '(animal) die'.