A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

3.1 Segments 33

early (perhaps lexical) cycle, while possessor suffixes are added at a later
(perhaps postlexical) cycle.

3.1.1.10 Loss of nonfinal semivowel

Nonfinal stem-consonant w is lost, or alternates with homorganic vowel u, in
certain forms of the adjectival word-families Vswr 'red, brown', Vwrv
'yellow, light brown', and Vwsr 'big'. In (25) I show the PerfP and Imprt of
the verbs ('become X'), the associated noun ('an X one'), and the abstractive
('red/yellowness').

(25) Presence/Absence of w in Certain Adjectival Stems

'Yellow' lacks w in the PerfP. In Niger, this stem has dialectal forms

based on Vrwr instead of Vwrr (LTF 2 282), suggesting that metathesis has

played a role.

The abstractives for 'red' and 'yellow' in (25) show ο or u instead of w.

Note also the Imprt variant usar for A-grm.

Nonfinal stem y is lost in the (Timbuktu-area) PI or-aen or or-αη 'months'

for Sg lyor (or aeyyor). The unreduced PI aeyyor-aen was recorded in A-grm.

(Some dialects, e.g. those around Kidal, use an unrelated stem for 'month'.) A

stem meaning 'grass' is variably t-e-ysse (PI t-i-yasiw-en) or t-esse (PI

t-assiw-en). The stem t-a-yatte 'mind, intelligence' has a variant PI t-l-tw-en

(alongside the more regular t-i-ystta-w-en). The i in t-l-tw-en might be taken

as the usual PI prefix -i-, but it could alternatively be taken as a vocalized

version of the lexical y, or as the contraction of /iy/.

The dialectal alternation aelrdfayaet and aelfafet 'peace' (<Arabic) is a

little different since it involves contraction rather than just

monophthongization.

There are a handful of alternations like aellaewr-set and asllor-ast

'language' (<Arabic), involving aew varying with o. The stems are loans or

regional words. It is not immediately clear whether the variants reflect multiple

borrowing, or whether the monophthongal variants have evolved out of the

diphthongal ones.

PerfP Imprt noun abstractive

a. 'red' saeggar Iswar

b. 'yellow' -aerar- Iwrar

c. 'big' w&ssar Iwsar

ά-swav t-3-sure

ά-wrav t-se-rore (t-3-ruve)

— t-ü-saere

[Imprt also üsar (A-grm)]