A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

10.2 Directional clitics 601

j. qjaj-Vm

go.far.ImprtACentrif

'Go far away (from here)!'

k. askk-Yin i-haen-an w-ln

go.to.ImprtACentrif Pl-camp-MaPl Ma-Dem

'Go to those camps over there!'

Doubling of the Centrif clitic is fairly common, as in (662), where the

second occurrence of the clitic is optional.

(662) ad-\hin itaw-Vin

Fut-/Centrif forget.Shlmpf-Centrif

'He will forget.'

10.2.2.2 Meaning

The Centrifugal indicates direction toward a nonproximate location with

motion verbs ('run away'), fixed nonproximate location with statives ('sit way

over there'), and motion away from the deictic center in combination with

activity verbs ('go away chewing'). The most useful all-purpose gloss would

be 'away'. This can be extended to suggest loss.

(663) a. [as-sasraju [w-a-\hin

[Sg-green.burrgrass [Ma-Dem.Sg-\Centrif

0-asqqor-aen-Vin]]

3MaSgS-dry.Reslt-Partpl.MaSg-\Centrif]]

0-asqqor andarrae-n

3MaSgS-dry.Reslt young-Partpl.MaSg

'(once) green grass that has dried away, it has dried young

(half-grown).'

b. ha a-wen-dasv haerat

ah! Dem-Dist-Anaph thing

akkasAtAin

take, away. Imprt-\3MaSgO ACentrif

'Ah, that (is) a thing (=custom), get rid of it!' [K]

'Dried away' in the free translation of (663.a) suggests that the abundant
fresh burrgrass (a major pasture grass, Cenchrus biflorus) has "withered away"
as we say, becoming smaller and of little value to livestock.
The Centrifugal clitic is less common than the Centripetal in texts, since
motion verbs without a Centripetal clitic are normally interpreted as involving
non-centripetal direction anyway. It can sometimes be glossed 'away' (as in