A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

7.3 Verb classes and irregular verbs 395

perfectives of the shape CaeC(C)aC- (§7.3.1.12). Several of these are color
verbs (393).

(393) Augment Verbs with Adjectival PerfP

'gloss' PerfP Imprt LoImpfP

'be brown' daema-t- daemae-t -t-adaema-t

'be brown' daera-t- daerae-t -t-adaera-t

'be speckled' kaesa-t- kaesae-t -t-akaesa-t

'be spotted' maeja-t- maejae-t -t-amaeja-t

'be green' dala-t- dalae-t -t-adala-t

[PerfP also -seddala-t (T-ka, T-md)]

c. 'be brown' fawa-t- fawae-t -t-afawa-t

[PerfP also -aeffewae-t (T-ka), see end of §7.3.1.16]

The variant PerfP forms showing C,-Gemination are modeled on PerfP

forms of non-adjectival verbs.

Ordinarily -t- requires shortening of a preceding stem-final full V (Pre-

Augment V-Shortening, §3.4.9.1), but this shortening conspicuously fails to

take place in the adjectival PerfP CaeCa-t- or CaCa-t. The fact that the

adjectival full V in the second perfective syllable overrides the shortening

could be taken as evidence that the full V is due to a special adjectival

perfective ablaut formative.

Moreover, whereas Augment -t- is normally omitted before V-initial

subject pronominal suffixes, in the paradigms of the PerfP CaeCa-t or CaCa-t

shown above, the -t- may is optionally (but often) present throughout. For

example, with 3MaPl suffix -aen we get e.g. kaesa-t-aen 'they-Ma became

speckled', and with 2Sg suffix -aed we get e.g. dala-t-aed 'you-Sg became

green'. It is as though CaeCa-t- or CaCa-t- has been reanalysed (in the

perfective only) as having stem-final (not suffixal) t, so they are just special

cases of adjectival PerfP CaeCaC- or CaCaC-, cf. (385, 389, 391). However, I

have also recorded "regular" contractions with these V-initial subject suffixes,

as seen in daeme-n 'they-Ma became brown' alongside daema-t-aen.

The Resit stem is regularly derived by accent shift from the PerfP stems:

Resit dala-t 'it-Ma has become green'.

7.3.1.14 Non-augment -Cu(C)Cv- and -CvCuCu- verbs

In §7.3.1.3-8 I described regular (non-adjectival) verbs with exactly one full V

(counting stem-final V's as full). In this section I describe non-augment verbs

with both a medial full V and a stem-final V. These verbs essentially combine