A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

11.3 Other discourse particles 619

In (700.a), a more general verb, here 'occupy', occurs in the main clause,

followed by ar and a VblN specifying the concrete event type. Note that

although t-e-taete is the logical subject of 'occupy', the latter has default

3MaSg subject rather than 3FeSg agreement, and t-e-taete does not show

Prefix Reduction as it would if it were a true syntactic subject.

In (700.b), ar is followed by a complete clause, if dd here is the Future

particle.

In R dialect, ar is also a particle meaning 'until' or 'all the way to', but in

T-ka and other dialects the 'until' particle is har (§13.1.1.5).

11.3.2 'other than'(ssel)

The particle sael occurs in a construction of the type '(an) X other than Y'

where X is a noun (normally indefinite in sense) and Y is an NP with more

specific reference. If X is not expressed by a regular noun, the minimal

demonstrative ά can be used, sael is not a preposition, and a following noun

does not undergo Prefix Reduction.

(701) a. daer ae-kall sael [w-α naesasn]

[in Sg-land] other.than [Ma-Dem.Sg lPlPoss]

'in a country other than ours'

b. i-tatt [a sael 1-s-an]

3MaSgS-eat.LoImpfP [Dem other.than Pl-meat-MaPl]

'He eats (foods) other than meat.'

(70l.b) is noncommital as to whether the person in question eats meat. It

specifies that what he eats is not limited to meat.

ssel also occurs in the fixed temporal phrase d-sal wen sael a-sskka 'the

day after tomorrow', lit. 'that day there other than tomorrow'.

ssel can occur in constructions of the type 'not..., except X' (i.e. 'only X'),

cf. §11.3.1, above.

(702) ά-di waer-\hl-\tt i-rsed

so Neg-\lSg(Dat)-\3MaSgO 3MaSgS-destroy.PerfN

dar [a sael abba]

also [Dem other.than father]

'So, nobody ruined it for me, other than father.' [K]

11.3.3 ' also, too, again' (dar)

The phrase-final particle dar (in T-ka also heard as daev) is very common. Its
basic sense is 'also, in addition', with 'again' as a more contextual translation.