A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

3.2 Local assimilations and syllabification rules 77

To illustrate the morphologization of Syncope, note particularly the
difference between unsyncopated causative VblN α-s-afal 'covering (with
roof)' and the syncopated instrumental noun ά-s-fal 'roof material', both of
which can be taken as underlying /a-s-afal/ (§8.6.1.6, §8.11). This
representation is obvious for the Caus VblN, and reasonable for the
instrumental nominal by comparison with other such nominals, e.g. a-s-akmas
'cloth bag'. Note again that even a marked accent fails to block Syncope; the
marked accent simply shifts to the preceding syllable (instrumental /a-s-afal/
-» ά-s-fal). (In K-d, the causative VblN and the instrumental noun do fall
together, in this case as ά-s-fal.)
In R dialect, Syncope additionally applies to VblN's of type ά-CaCu from
bisyllabic stems (54.a). For the R speaker I also recorded Syncope in long
imperfectives with stem melody (54.b).

(54) Syncope in a-CaCu VblN's (R Dialect)

a. ά-CaCu -> ά-CCu

VblN

example: ά-mku (R) 'being extinguished'

[compare T-ka ά-maku, A-grm ά-maki]

b. s-lCaCu... s-lCCu...

causative long imperfective

example: -s-imku-t (R) 'extinguishing'

[compare T-ka -s-lmaku-t, A-grm -s-amaeka-t]

I write ά-mku and -s-imku-t with acute accent since the accented syllable

is no longer the surface antepenult, but the output can be obtained simply by

ordering Default Accentuation before Syncope.

The small set of contexts where Syncope applies to a stem-final CvC

syllable, always involving a V-initial suffix, is given in (55). The type in (55.a)

syncopates only in certain dialects (not including T-ka).

(55) Contexts for Syncope of Stem-Final ...CvC- (with examples)

a. -t-lCaC-V... long imperfective of -oCvC- before V-initial subject

suffix [T-md and R dialects]

examples: -t-lkal- 'step on', 3MaPl t-lkl-an

-t-ihar- 'snatch', 3MaPl t-lvh-an (R)

[for metathesis in 'snatch' see §3.2.2]

[compare T-ka: 3MaPl t-lkal-aen, t-ihar-aen]

b. uCaC-V...

examples:

Sg noun of shape uCaC in MaPl uCCaw-aen

VblN lidah 'pounding', PI udhaw-aen

ilas 'tongue', PHlsaw-aen