A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

418 7 Verbal morphology

7.3.2.8 'come', 'arrive' and 'be on the way' (νfyw, Vs, Vml)

'Come' is expressed in a number of ways. The (suppletive) imperatives for

'come' are in (418).

(418) Suppletive Imperative 'come'

2Sg "iyajw

2MaPl iyaew-aet

2FePl iyaew-maet (variant iyaew-kmaet)

In the non-imperative inflected forms, there is no verb stem specifically
translatable 'come' (including the directional element). Instead, 'come' is
expressed as the combination of a nondirectional motion verb like -usu-
'arrive' -milu- 'be on the way' plus Centripetal clitic -\add (or variant). These
verbs can also be used with Centrifugal -\in (or variant) to indicate
directionality toward a non-proximate location.
The telic 'arrive' verb is illustrated in (419).

(419) 'arrive'

PerfP -osa-

Shlmpf /-asi-/ (3MaSg 0-as, 3MaPl asa-n)

Impf as

LoImpfP -t-ls- (3MaPl t-isa-n ; A-grm -t-ds-)

VblN ass (also t-assaw-t, t-asi-t-t)

Thus osas-nAsdd 'they came (=arrived here)'. Contrast osas-n-\in 'they
arrived there' (with Centrifugal clitic). The Imprt as-\add 'come!! (=arrive
here!) is much less common than the suppletive forms in (418).
For atelic 'be on the way (to a place)', the verb used is shown in (420). It
has only long imperfective and VblN forms in the dialects checked.

(420) 'be on the way'

LoImpfP -mal- (/-malA-/)

LoImpfN -mil- (3MaSgl-mil)

VblN α-mil

Example of LoImpfN: 3MaSg waer-\dl-mil 'he isn't coming', 3MaPl
W3r-\ad mlb-n. The long imperfectives are unusual in form, and the absence
of short imperfectives (and perfectives) makes the morphology somewhat
opaque. However, the shift from positive to negative melody
indicates that these forms belong in the long imperfective system. The accent
of waerAd i-mil shows that the verb has a V-final basic form -muli>, and the