A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

7.3 Verb classes and irregular verbs 409

(406) -vvrriwu- 'be torn'

PerfP -aqqarrawae-t (phonetic [-aeqiae'nawast]) Imprt rserrawa-t, rarriwa-t LoImpfP -t-arEerrawa-t VblN a-rarriwi (or a-qarriwi)

Because of the BLC's qq and rr, the perfective melody is indeterminately

(-aqqarrawae-t) or (-asqqzerrawae-t). I take it as -aqqarrawae-t,
melodically equivalent to e.g. -ajjujjaebae-t 'bind' in (402) above, i.e. with two
Η vowels followed by two low vowels. As with all heavy verb stems, the VblN
with prefix a- has stem melody. The Imprt fluctuates between and
melody, while only is attested in the LoImpfP. I have noted
numerous other cases where a medial lexical i is associated with a stem-wide
imperfective melody.
Finally, there are some augmented verbs with basic shape -CDCI>. Those
in (407) represent the majority that have lexical u.

(407) Augmented -CuCu- Stems

'be plump'

-dufb-

'drag'

-hubu-

a. perfective system

PerfP

Resit

PerfN

-aeddofae-t

-aeddofae-t

-aeddofae-t

-aehobae-t

-aehobae-t

-aehobae-t

b. short imperfective system

Shlmpf -addüfa-t

Imprt düfa-t

c. long imperfective system

LoImpfP -t-ldufu-t

LoImpfN -t-sdufu-t

Prohib -t-adufu-t

-ahuba-t

hüba-t

-t-lhubu-t

-t-ahubu-t

-t-ahubu-t

d. nominalization

VF1N x-dafü ae-habu

The only common subtype is that exemplified by 'be plump'. I take the
basic representation of the stem to be -CuCu-. The perfective has medial ο
(arguably from the fusion of melody with lexical u by V-Height
Compromise). The verb has u in the imperfectives, and it undergoes
CrGemination in conjunction with Stem-Initial V-Insertion (perfectives,

A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

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