A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

8.8 Agentives 541

'drink'

'read'

9S9W

3Υ3Γ

e-m-aesaeww (Pll-m-aesw-an)

e-m-aeraerr (PI 1-m-asrr-an)

g. -uCi>, Agentive as-m-aC

'butcher' as ae-m-as (Pll-m-as-an)

h. -iXQCaC-, Agentive 3-m-i(C)CaeC

'be ahead' Izar 3-m-lzaer

'be equal' ajdah 9-m-ljdaeh

'be sour' Ismam 3-n-ismaem

'be red' Iswav 3-m-iswaer

'black' üzzafII II 9-n-lzzaef

[agentive also e-n-ezzaef]

i. -uCCaC-, Agentive m-aCCeC

'be hungry' ullaz a-m-sllez

j. -uCaw-, Agentive ά-m-iCi (one example, lexicalized)

'accompany' Idaw ά-m-idi 'friend'

[PI i-m-ldiw-aen]

The Sg vocalic prefix is e- before -CaeCaeC and -CasCC, and dialectally
before -CaeCaC and -CaCaeC. Elsewhere we generally get ae-/a- before -Cd...
and a- before -Cae... Most other dialects have as- corresponding to
(harmonized) T-ka a- as vocalic prefix when the following syllable has a high
V (569.b,e,h). Thus T-ka 3-m-uzaer 'dweller, inhabitant' (569.b) appears as
ae-m-iizaer in most other dialects (T-md, R, A-grm).
A lexicalized agentive ae-n-dhaz 'close kinsman' has -n- instead of -m-
although no labial is present, cf. -uhvz- 'approach'. This agentive was
recorded in A-grm, but a feminine counterpart t-as-n-ahaz-t was recorded for
T-ka with the sense 'the approaches (to a location)'. The regular form
ae-m-ahazι was recorded for R dialect.
The various agentive formulae do not lend themselves to a convincing
unifying analysis, beyond the -m- (or -n-) prefix. As shown below, even this
prefix is not always present in nominals functioning as agentives (§8.12.1).
Disregarding the vocalic prefix, and focusing on the types with stem
melody, we see a predominant vocalic sequence «α α» in (569.a) for -vPQvC-
verbs, and in (569.d) for -uCvC- verbs. For -vCvC- verbs, on the other hand,
(569.c) shows considerable variation between «α α», «as α», «α ae», and
«as as». This variation is partly dialectal, but it is also more lexicalized; for
example, e-m-aedael 'beggar' occurs in all dialects checked. My sense is that
a-m-aeCaC is now the productive or default pattern at least in T-ka.
The patterns e-m-aeCC (569.f) and as-m-aC (569.g) show the same
melody in the one audible stem V, but the underlying stems in question are
V-final, and feminines like t-e-m-aeksi-t-t with stem-final i suggest that the