A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

8.6 Verbal nouns 525

2. stems with a nonfinal i or u

a. syncopating, with final i

'not budge' darira-t a-driri —

[VblN also ά-chruru (T), a-dsYuri (A-grm)]

b. syncopating, with final u due to u-Spreading

'roll' balambula-t α-blambulu i-bbmbülu-taen

c. like (2b), plus Medial V-Shortening

'fly away' furra-t a-farru i-förru-taen

'act like Zarma' zurma-t ά-zarmu (etc.)

'poke' düqqa-t ά-daqqu

'scrub' fuffara-t a-föffbru

There is also an alternative VblN pattern for middleweight augment verbs
whose basic forms begin as Cu... with a full V (always u). Here there is no
χ-pen, the stem melody is rather than , and the Sg vocalic prefix is
ae- instead of a-. The pattern is therefore sui generis within the larger system of
VblN ablaut. Examples in (557).

(557) Alternative Verbal Nouns with ae - prefix and First-Syllable

Unaccented α

gloss Imprt Sg VblN

a. ae-CaCu

'sow' duma-t se-damu

'boil over' busa-t ee-basu

'place head' süma-t ae-samu

'drop in on' süfs-t se-safu

b. se-CaCCu, ae-CaCCi (not T-ka)

'poke' (A-grm) diiqqas-t se-daqqu

'run, bolt' fuqqa-t ae-faqqu

'go down' zubbs-t ae-zabbi (A-grm), ae-zabbu (R)

'be in trance' zurma-t ae-zarmu

Here the VblN stem is -Ca(C)Cu or -Ca(C)Ci, and the Sg vocalic prefix is
ae-. This pattern is well-attested as a variant type in T-ka when there is no
medial cluster (557.a), but absent in this dialect when there is a cluster. For
example, T-ka has the standard ά-daqqu, ά-faqqu, ά-zabbu, and a-zsrmu for
the VblN's in (556.b). However, in A-grm, R, and K-d the pattern shown in
(557.b) is very common.