A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

548 8 Verbal derivation

8.8.4 Causative agentives with -m-/-n- plus -s-

Causative agentives are fairly easy to elicit, and some occur naturally in
speech. Again, speakers were not always willing to produce agentives from the
inflected verbs suggested, so there are some lacunae. Moreover, for
superheavy verb stems, causative as well as underived, the unprefixed
Agent/Instrument form is used; see §8.11.1, below.

(574) Agentives of Causatives

gloss

a. -s-vPQvC-

' inquire of

'inform'

'provoke'

'question'

b. -s-vCvC-

'do sorcery'

'heat'

'peddle'

Imprt

s-astan

s-almad

s-aknas

s-astan

s-ahar

s-akas

s-ataj

Agentive

e-m-asss-estan

e-n-aess-elmad

e-m-aess-eknas

e-m-aess-estan

e-m-asss-aehaer (PI i-m-aess-sehser-sen)

e-m-asss-sekass

e-m-asss-aetaqj

c. -s-vCCV- (with deletable final V)

'teach' s-arar e-m-aes-aeYaerr (PI i-m-aes-asrr-an)

[dialectally e-m-ass-aevasr; resyllabified (§3.2.4, §3.3.2)]

'cook'

'buy'

s-£eqq

s-aens

e-m-aes-aeqq (PI i-m-aes-aeqq-an)

[PI variant i-m-aess-aeqqa-taen]

e-m-aes-aens (PI i-m-aes-asns-an)

-s-vCvCvC-

'harvest'

'heal, treat'

s-ahhajay

s-assafar

e-m-aes-haejaey

e-n-ass-saefaer

e. -s-vCvCCvC-

'wish' s-addarhan (?) e-m-aess-aederhan

[informant unsure of agentive form]

f. -S-OCVC- with agentive e-m-aess-eCaC

'wash' s-lrad e-m-asss-erad

'tame' s-lnan e-m-asss-enan (PI i-m-ass-ύηαη)

'shut up' s-usam e-n-aess-esam

'milk' z-üzaj e-m-aezz-ezaj (Im)