A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

400 7 Verbal morphology

also seen in -CiCvC- verbs, see -jiwvd- 'flee' (PerfP -aejewasd-, Imprt

jawaed), see §7.3.1.7.

I know of no other underived stems of the type illustrated in (396). The

pattern is, however, also attested in mediopassive derivatives (prefix -m- or

-n-) of -uCi> verbs, e.g. -aem-era- 'be opened' (Imprt m-ar). It is possible that

'be balanced' in (396) is a frozen mediopassive, judging from its m and its

sense.

Verbs with superheavy shape -CvCuCo-, more specifically -CvCuCu-

with medial u, are illustrated by 'go down' in (397).

(397) -CvCuCu- Stem

'go down'

a. perfective system

PerfP -setrara-

Reslt -aetrara-

PerfN -setrara-

b. short imperfective system

Shlmpf -atrur (/-atruri-/)

Imprt tarur

c. long imperfective system

LoImpfP -t-ltruru-

LoImpfN -t-3truru-

Prohib -t-struru-

d. nominalization

VblN a-tnir

The vocalism and stem-initial consonantal alternations are identical to

those of the type -bvlulvr- 'gape' (PerfP -seblalaev-, Imprt bslulsv), see

§7.3.1.7. The same paradigm occurs with Mediopassive -m-vsuku- 'spread'

(§8.3). The perfectives and inflectable Shlmpf show Stem-Initial V-Insertion

followed by Stem-Initial Syncope.

7.3.1.15 Full-V-initial V-final -vC(C)v- (a/i and a/u types)

I now turn to verbs (all of them happen to be of the non-augment type) with

both an initial full V and a stem-final V. Since initial full V's occur only in

light stems, the only relevant shapes are -uCi> and -uCCu-. The initial V is

treated like that of -uCvC- and -uCCvC- verbs, including initial ο in the

perfectives (§7.3.1.8). The final V is treated, depending on the verb, as in the