A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

3.2 Local assimilations and syllabification rules 45

(33) Rharous Cases of /jt/ tt

gloss Sg PI

a. 'wild onion' t-a-mzalaltat-t t-i-mzalalbj-en

b. 'ankle' t-a-mzazzst-t t-i-mzazzaj

However, these apparently irregular t/j alternations may involve dialect
mixing. Both 'wild onion' and 'ankle' have dialectal variants with final
consonants (in the PI) other than j. 'Wild onion' is attested with stem-final j, k,
and y, and with zero C in this position.

3.2.1.2 Nasal assimilation and dissimilation

In most dialects, /n/ appears as [m] before a labial stop {bp}, and as velar or

uvular [q] before stops {g k Y}. In the cluster ηγ, the γ is pronounced as

uvular stop or affricate (§3.1.1.3). Observable alternations occur primarily in

verbs whose first C is a nasal. Two examples: 1) PerfP -smbasr- '(herd) be

taken to pasture at night' and variant VblN t-a-mbsr-t versus LoImpfP

-ndbbaer- and VblN a-naebar ; 2) PerfP -3ητα- 'kill' versus LoImpfP -naqq-

and VblN t-e-naeYe. The most obvious analysis for these cases is that the /n/ is

basic but undergoes point-of-articulation assimilation to an immediately

following C.

One could alternatively argue that an initial /m/ or /q/ shifts to n stem-

initially. This is dubious for /q/ since the velar nasal is a marginal phoneme in

prevocalic position (§3.1.1.2). However, this analysis is fairly credible for /m/,

since /m/ in verb prefixes (there is no /m/ in nominal prefixes) shifts to n when

the stem contains a labial. The prefixes in question are Mediopassive (§8.3)

and Agentive (§8.8). By extending this dissimilation to e.g. -nabbaer-

(preceding paragraph), one could actually argue for a basic lexical

representation with /m/ instead of /n/.

On the whole, I prefer the nasal-assimilation analysis, since it makes more

sense for the alternations of n with q.

(34) Nasal Assimilation

n adopts the point of articulation features of an immediately

following noncoronal (i.e. labial, velar, or uvular) stop.

For T-ka and most other dialects, it makes no difference whether the /n/ is

the first member of an underlying cluster, or comes into contact with the

following obstruent due to Stem-Initial Syncope. However, the K-d informant

conspicuously failed to apply Nasal Assimilation in clusters resulting from

Stem-Initial Syncope, i.e., in cases where the initial n is separated from the