A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

392 7 Verbal morphology

See also the somewhat irregular adjectival verbs 'be many, much'
(§7.3.2.2), 'forget' (§7.3.2.3), and 'be yellow' (§7.3.2.4).

7.3.1.12 Adjectival verbs without i...a imperfective vocalism...

The verbs in §7.3.1.10-11, above, have no more than three distinct lexical C's,
and so they are readily amenable to an imperfective stem-shape like
-i(C)CaC-. There are, however, other adjectival verbs that have four C's, and
these verbs cannot fit into this imperfective pattern. Consider the data in (389).

(389) Adjectival Verbs with -CvPQvC- and -CvPQoC- PerfP

gloss PerfP Imprt LoImpfP

'be blind' daenral- daenrael -t-adaenral-

'be spotted' sserbay- saerbaey -t-asaerbay-

'be thick' jarmam- jaermaem -t-ajaermam-

'be small' matkay- maetkasy -t-amaetkay-

[Lolmpf also -t-imatkuy-]

c. 'be a runt' maeymar- (R) mseymser -t-amaeymar-

maymar- (T-ka)

[PerfP also -ammaymaer- (T-ka)]

In the imperfectives, all of these behave like ordinary -CvCCvC- verbs, cf.
-kvykvy- 'shake off in §7.3.1.2. In the inflectable Shlmpf, we get Stem-Initial
V-Insertion and Q-Gemination as usual, e.g. ad t-aeddaerrael 'she will become
blind'. However, we get C-initial adjectival perfectives, which do not allow
subject prefixes. In (389.a) we have melody and a full V (suggesting χ-f)
in the second syllable, compare e.g. PerfP raeggal- 'be brown' in (385.b),
above. In (389.b) the PerfP has melody and short V's, compare e.g. PerfP
jazzal- 'be short' in (386.f), above. For 'be a runt', both of these PerfP shapes
are attested, along with another (-ammaymaer-) typical of non-adjectival verbs
of the same -CvCCvC- shape.
Since the verbs in (389) all have CaeCCaeC as Imprt Sg shape, it is notable
that the PerfP, including the 3MaSg or 3FeSg PerfP with no audible subject
affix, differs from CaeCCaeC in vocalism, either by having a full α instead of ae
in the second syllable, or by having Η vocalism (two schwas). Thus daerrael
'be blind!' versus daerral 'he/she became blind', and jaermaem 'be thick!'
versus jarmam 'he/she became thick'.
Abstractive nominals are typical for these adjectival verbs: t-amniatki-t-t,
t-aemmäeymaer-t, t-aeddaerrael-t, and t-aejjaermaem-t or t-ajjarmam-t.