8.6 Verbal nouns 527g. Causative (of non-augment V-final verb, cf. PerfP stems -ass-arva-
and -ss-faegga-)
'burn' a-s-snr l-s-srv-an
'cause to sprout' α-s-affagg i-s-affagg-anh. Causative (with irregular Causative prefix allomorph)
'cause to leave' α-saww-ayy i-saww-ayy-ani. Reciprocal
'bite each other' α-nm-adad i-nm-adid-aen
a-nm-adad i-nm-adad-asnThe VblN forms are generally consistent with those of long underived
stems: prefix α-,
Final i/A-Deletion (§3.1.2.4). The VblN forms with a final syllable ...CaC have
optional variants with final ...CaC, e.g. a-s-awar and a-s-awar for 'put on'.
This variation does not apply to VblN's of V-final stems.
A special feature of VblN's of causatives based on heavy input verbs is the
application of C,-Gemination to the first C following the Causative prefix, if
this C is intervocalic and is separated from the prefixal C by only a short V.
This does not affect middleweight causative VblN α-s-aCaC, whose input is
light (-vCvC-). This post-prefixal Cj-Gemination also applies to the inflectable
Shlmpf (but not to perfectives) of the same causative derivatives. Thus, to add
a new example, 'braid (sb)' has PerfP -aes-jasmbas-t and Imprt s-ajjamba-t,
and the geminated jj of the latter recurs in VblN a-s-ajjambu.
The causative VblN pattern exemplified in (558.f) by α-s-awar, i.e.
α-s-aCaC, is syncopated to ά-s-CaC in some dialects. This is the usual pattern
in Κ (to judge by my K-d data), and it is attested in the R data (558.f). For
example, I recorded ά-s-daw 'fixing up' in for K-d and as an option for R,
versus α-s-adaw in A-grm and T-ka (and as an option for R). The effect of
Syncope here is to merge (in the relevant dialects) VblN α-s-aCaC with the
Instrumental nominal type d-s-CaC for the same roots. For example,
corresponding to PerfP -aes-jasn- 'make (camel) kneel', T-ka clearly
distinguishes VblN α-s-ajan 'making kneel' from a related nominal d-s-jan
'area where animals spend the night'. By contrast, the K-d speaker gave
ά-s-jan in both VblN and nominal senses.
(559) presents some examples involving prefixal derivatives of
augmented verb stems.