A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

412 7 Verbal morphology

V-initial subject pronominal suffixes), but the t at the end of the short

imperfectives functions as a stem-final C and is not omitted before V-initial

suffixes. Another idiosyncrasy is that the nominals are based on a stem-variant

with final n.

PerfP forms for T-ka are 3MaSg i-mmu-t, 3FeSg t-ammu-t, 1P1

n-ammu-t, 2FePl t-ammu-t-mast, and 3FePl ammu-t-naet with the Augment,

but with V-initial suffixes lSg ammu-v, 2Sg t-ammu-d, 2MaPl t-ammu-m,

3MaPl ammu-n. The same forms are used as PerfN, which bring out accentual

differences, e.g. lSg war smmu-v Ί did not die' versus war ammu-n 'they-

Ma did not die'. As usual before a syllable with u, the perfective has initial a in

T-ka and A-grm, but ae in the other dialects (K R T-md). The ae dialects have

3Sg PerfP 0-aemmu-t.

Shlmpf forms (note the invariant stem-final t) are lSg semmaet-aer, 1P1

n-aemmast, 2Sg t-aemmaet-asd, 2MaPl t-semmaet-aem, 2FePl t-aemmast-mast,

3MaSg 0-aemmaet, 3FeSg t-semmaet, 3MaPl aemmaet-aen, 3FePl semmaet-naet.

Accent is default throughout the Shlmpf, e.g. Future ad 0-aemmaet 'he will

die'. The LoImpfP is -t-amaetta- plus the Augment in the usual places, e.g.

3MaSg i-tamaetta-t and 3FePl t-amaetta-t-nast, but augmentless 2Sg

t-amastte-d, 3MaPl t-amäette-η, etc.

7.3.2.2 'be much, many' (Vj, Vjt), 'be long, tall' (Vsjr, Vsjrt)

The forms for 'be much, many' are in (410).

(410) 'be much, many'

a. perfective system

PerfP -sjjst- (dialectally -ajjaet-, -agaet-, -aejut-)

Resit -3j.pt- (-ajjaet-, -agaet-, -aejut-)

PerfN -ajjat- (etc.)

b. short imperfective system

Shlmpf -Ijat- (dialectally -üjat-)

Imprt "ijat (üjat)

c. long imperfective system

LoImpfP -t-ljat (dialectally -t-ajata-, -t-ujat-)

LoImpfN -t-ljit (-t-ajiti-)

Prohib -t-ljat (-t-sejata-)

d. nominalization

noun ajutt ('large quantity, abundance')