A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

508 8 Verbal derivation

(539) iba η t-ala η 't-se-yatte

lack Poss Fe-have.VblN Poss Fe-Sg-intelligence

'lack of (having) intelligence' [Κ]

8.6.1.1 Verbal nouns of light V-final verbs

Verbs of type -vCCi> with initial short vowel and final full vowel do not, as a
class, have a fully productive masculine VblN, and many of them use a
feminine nominal as VblN. The attested masculine VblN's are given in (540),
and the more common feminine VblN's are illustrated in (541). As a general
comment, the subtypes of -vCCi> defined by PerfP and Imprt stem-final V's
(α/ι, α/u, u/u, see §7.3.1.3-4) do not differ systematically from each other in
VblN patterns and are intermingled here. The only masculine VblN for a -vCu-
verb is included, along with an A-grm VblN for -vkku- 'go to' with the
geminate reduced to k (540.d). Many of the masculine VblN's denote
unbounded actions or states and do not have plurals in common use.

(540) Masculine Verbal Nouns for -v(C)Ci> Stems

gloss Imprt Sg VblN PI VblN

a. VblN e-CaePPi (variant e-CaPPi), uncommon in T-ka

'vomit' aebs e-baessi (K-d)

[also e-bassi (T-ka)]

'go away' agal e-gaelli (A-grm)

'spend day' akal e-kaelli (A-grm, R)

'listen' asal e-saelli (R, variant)

'have mercy' srfu e-raeffi (R)

'not need' wnu e-raenni (T, variant)

'err' axdu e-xaeddi (R)

'tire easily' azru e-zaerri (all)

b. VblN e-CaePP

'begin' sent e-na§tt

'sell' aens e-naezz

[for s and zz see §3.1.1.5]

1-naett-an

1-naezz-an

c. VblN e-CaeCi, see also (605) in §8.10.2

'inherit' atru e-taeri

'shout' avar e-raeri (or e-rari)

i-taer-an

i-raer-an

d. VblN ICi

'go to' sekk iki (A-grm)

'do' sej lji 'act' Iji-taen