A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

538 8 Verbal derivation

c. <L> melody, two full α's

'green' dala-t dalae-t

'greyish' fawa-t flwa-t

'mute' -addandaem- daendaem

young -aemewasd- maewasd

d. <L> melody, two short se's, no α

'hard of hearing' -abbasaew-

'off-white' -sbbsydaej-

baesaew

baeydaej

e. <L> melody, two short ae's, final α added

'grey' daebar-

f. e-CaeCeC

'black' kaewal-

g. ά-CoC for augmented -CuCu- stem

'white-faced' -aemmolae-t

h. e-CaeCi

'spotted'

'dark brown'

'spotted'

i. <H> melody

'short'

daebasr

lkwal

müta-t

bseka-t bsekae-t

[PerfP also -abbaks-t]

daera-t daerae-t

maeja-t maejae-t

kasssl- Iksal

ae-dala

ae-fawa

ae-dandam

(A-grm)

se-mawad

e-baesaew (A-grm)

baesaew (T-ka)

e-baeydaej

a-daebasra

e-kaewel

ά-mol

e-baeki

e-dasri, e-dsri

e-maeji

a-kassalu

In (568.a) we get adjectival noun ά-CCaC. The verbs mostly have Imprt
"iCCaC, but a few have CaeCaeC. Some have PerfP CseCaC-, and -CCaC in the
adjectival noun might be derived from this CaeCaC- by Syncope. Better yet,
since Stem-Initial Syncope (§3.4.8) arguably applies only to /a/, and since an
accent on a syncopated a surfaces in the preceding syllable, we can derive
d-CCaC from /a-CaCaC/. This /a-CsCaC/ is very close to the audible
a-CaCCaC for adjectival nouns with melody in (568.b), whose medial
cluster prevents Syncope. However, the small number of a-CsCCaC adjectival
nouns and the less than transparent nature of Stem-Initial Syncope make this
interpretation of the d-CCaC cases somewhat opaque. It is probably better to
just recognize ά-CCaC as an adjectival noun pattern.
In (568.c-g) we see various adjectival noun patterns with melody,
counting e and ο as compatible with . We get an apparent melody
in (568.h). The example in (568.i) has melody.