A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

3.2 Local assimilations and syllabification rules 63

4. Verbal Noun of prefixal derivative

/a-m-aswi/ underlying

/a-m-asw/ after Stem-Final i/A-Deletion

α-m-asaww 'being drunk'

(cf. Pll-m-asw-an)

b. for -DPQU- verbs (Q a sonorant, only two such verbs known)

1. Sg Imprt

/alwi/ underlying

/alw/ after Stem-Final i/A-Deletion

alaw 'be spacious!'

2. Sg Imprt of prefixal derivation

/s-ilwi/ underlying

/s-llw/ after Stem-Final i/A-Deletion

s-ilaw 'make spacious!'

3. Agentive

[no examples; the two -uPQu- stems are non-agentive

semantically]

4. Verbal Noun of prefixal derivative

/a-s-ilwi/ underlying

/a-s-ilw/ after Stem-Final i/A-Deletion

a-s-ilaww 'making spacious'

(cf. ΡΠ-s-ilw-an)

5. LoImpfP

/-t-llwi/ underlying

/-t-ilw/ after Stem-Final i/A-Deletion

-t-ilaw 'is spacious'

(cf. 3MaPl i-t-ilw-aen)

The only verbs of shape -uPQu- with two full V's, where Q is a sonorant,

are (PerfP) -olwa- 'be spacious' and -odwa- 'leave in afternoon'. The only

respect in which they differ from the -vPQu- verbs is insofar as their long

imperfectives are also subject to resyllabification.

I know of one underived (and unaugmented) -CvPQu- verb of the same

type, namely -lvjwu- 'bend, veer' (PerfP -allajwa-, LoImpfP -t-alaejwa-, but

Imprt laejaew from /laejwi/ and VbIN a-bjsww from /-lsjwi/.

This leaves -vPQu- verbs as the overwhelmingly most common stems

subject to resyllabification. The following stems are affected (they are shown

in the resyllabified Sg Imprt, for underlying /asPQi/): srar [asras'r] 'read!' or

'call!', sjal 'go!', akan 'do (well)!', skal 'spend mid-day!', asal 'hear!', and