A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

7.3 Verb classes and irregular verbs 391

in the first PerfP variant, which occurs in most dialects including T-ka, or
whether it is «as ο» or «a u» in the second, which is attested for T-md and K-d.
Since this verb for 'be big' is often contrasted with PerfP madray 'be small'
(see §7.3.1.12, below), I favor recognition of vocalism in 'be big'
(maqqar-, maqqur-) on grounds of parallelism.
The same phonological ambiguity occurs in (387.b-c) due to double
BLC's. Here there are no compelling external arguments for one representation
or the other. On the whole, I again favor recognizing vocalism, e.g. farur-
and karruz-. The reason for this is that this vocalism has parallels, including
the u vowel, in the clear melody cases in (386.a-b), above. There are no
clear cases (not involving a BLC) with ο in the second PerfP syllable, though
there is one case of the other mid-height vowel e, namely saemmed- 'be cold'
in (385.c), where (in T-ka) the Q in the first syllable shows that the second V is
phonemic e rather than i.
There are also some verbs that have audible dialectal melodic variation in
perfectives (388).

(388) Verbs with Alternative Perfectives

gloss PerfP Imprt LoImpfP VblN

a. 'be soft' lzemmed- Umad -t-llmad- t-a-lamde

lammid-

b. 'be white' mallal- "imlal -t-lmlal- t-a-malle

meellasl-

maellul-

c. 'be clean' saddij- Isdaj -t-isdaj- t-a-sdaje

sseddij- (A-grm sseddig-)

d. 'be wide' haraw- Ihraw -t-lhraw- t-ahharu-t-t

haeraw- -t-ahseraw-

'Be soft' (388.a) has PerfP lsemmed- in most dialects, but I transcribed

lammid- for T-md. There is no difference between i and e before d, so ae

versus a in the first syllable is diagnostic. For 'be white' (388.b), mallal- is

widespread, maellael- was recorded for T-md, and maellul- occurred in A-grm

and Im, and as a variant in K-d. For 'be clean' (388.c), T-ka has saddij- but

other dialects have sseddij- (A-grm saeddig-), indicating that T-ka has applied

Short-V Harmony (but there is no evidence within T-ka for an underlying /as/).

For 'be wide, spacious' (388.d), both haeraw- and haraw- are fairly

widespread; there are also variants of the imperfecti ves that suggest the

influence of a non-adjectival verb, -hvrvw- 'forge (metal)', PerfP -ahharaew-.