A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

8.6 Verbal nouns 531

e-laell 'noble' Mbllu 'being noble'

e-kli 'slave' skkalu 'being a slave'

t-amaett 'woman' ammsttu ammsttu 'womanhood'

(Vmd)

tünte 'female' attantu 'femininity'

a-waeqqas 'beast' awwarsu 'wildness (animal)

. masculine (trisyllabic, C-final, penultimate accent)
a-maknud 'dwarf ammaknud 'dwarfhood'
[abstractive also ammaknad]
as-habs 'man' ahhubs 'manhood'
as-kdfar 'infidel' akkufar 'being an infidel'
a-bggas 'in-law' alluggss 'being in-laws'
ae-masaev 'warrior' smmiissY 'haughtiness'
as-mali 'alpha male' ammuli 'alpha-male-hood'
[for/ammuby/, §see 3.1.2.5]
se-samor 'unemployed' sssumar 'unemployment'
[<Fr chömeur]
as-mawad t 'young man' ammiwsd 'youthfulness'
[RT]

f. masculine (four syllables, V-final, default accent)

α-maeros 'accursed one' ammarusu 'accursedness'

g. Reciprocal derivative (feminine, with final a)

a-namm-srru 'namesake' t-annsm-arro 'being namesakes'

The abstractives in (562) show an onset -sPP... with initial schwa and
gemination of the first C.
These abstractives are characterized by vocalism, except that the
feminines in (562.a-c) add -a at the end. One could argue whether the -a is a
feminine suffix, reflects the L part of a melody, or is due to a kind of
α-f formative. Since melodies are usually overlaid on input V's, it may be
preferable to take the -a to be suffixal. A few of the masculines end in u not
corresponding to an input V, but in some cases the corresponding input noun
arguably has a covert final V, e.g. e-laell 'noble', cf. feminine t-e-lselli-t-t
'noble woman'.
The melody generally favors u over i when overlaid on an input full
V, except that i appears immediately following w or when a w occurs later in
the stem (e.g. 'humanity', 'youthfulness', cf. §3.4.10, §4.1.2.17), or when the
input already has i ('friendship'). Moreover, there is a reorganization of
V-length patterning. The resulting pattern of length is, with S = short and X =
variable length, the following: (S)SXS(-a), where X is a full V if the input has
one or two nonfinal full V's in its last two syllables, otherwise X is a short V.
An exception is 'dwarfhood' in (562.e), where the verb -muknvd- 'be a dwarf