A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

398 7 Verbal morphology

I begin with those that have Ο in the perfective, and basic form -CuCd-
with medial u. Consider (395).

(395) -CuCu- Stems with Medial ο in Perfect!ves

'move out'

-huno-

'(skin) dry' 'inherit'

-husu- -kusu-

a. perfective system

PerfP -Eehona- -sehosa- -aekkosa-

Reslt -ashona- -ashosa- -aekkosa-

PerfN -sehona- -aehosa- -aekkosa-

b. short imperfective system

Shlmpf -aehan -shus- -akkus-

[= /-aehani-/] [= /-shusi-/] [= /-akkusi-/]

Imprt han hüs küs

c. long imperfective system

LoImpfP -t-ahana- -t-lhusu- -t-lkusu-

LoImpfN -t-ahini- -t-ahusu- -t-skusu-

Prohib -t-shana- -t-ahusu- -t-akusu-

d. nominalization

VblN [see below] a-hus a-kiis

The big break here is between 'move out' and the other two, since 'move
out' has short imperfective melody (becoming as characteristic
melody in long imperfectives). Its vocalism is comparable to that in 'load' in
(394), above. By contrast, '(skin) dry' and 'inherit' have imperfective
melody. '(Skin) dry' and 'inherit' have the same vocalism as -CuCvC- stems
like -dubvn- 'marry' (PerfP -aedobaen-, Imprt dubsn), see §7.3.1.7. The
difference between '(skin) dry' and 'inherit' is that only the latter shows
Cj-Gemination in the perfective.
The other verb of the 'move out' type (395) is 'take a long time' (PerfP
-aehoja-, Imprt haj, LoImpfP -t-ahaja-). There is no "regular" VblN for this
subtype; 1-han-an 'moving out' is PI in form, while t-ae-haji-t-t 'taking a long
time' is a feminine nominal. Note that both 'move out' and 'take a long time'
are h-initial (h often fails to geminate audibly in positions calling for
gemination).
'(Skin) dry' (395) is paralleled by 'calm down' (-aedoka-, duk, -t-lduku-),
'fail' (-sefota-, etc.), 'be rubbed' (-sekosa-), and '(grains) be cleaned' (-selosa-,
but variant -aellosa- for A-grm). The VblN's are all of the regular shape
Q-CüC. I know of no other stem paralleling 'inherit' including CrGemination