A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

3.4 Ablaut 139

3.4.9.3 Medial V-Shortening and u-Spreading

These processes apply to long imperfectives, and in some cases to short
imperfectives, of stems with full u in a nonfinal syllable.
It is necessary to distinguish -...CuCvC- from -...CuCCvC- stems ("v" =
short vowel). The u is in an open syllable in the first case, but in a closed
syllable in the second. Examples are -bvlulvr- 'gape' (open syllable) and
-hussvl- 'be obligatory' (closed syllable). The expected long imperfectives
are -t-lblulir- and -t-lhussil-. Forms of this type actually occur in A-grm and
some other dialects near Gao, but in all other Tamashek dialects checked they
are ungrammatical. Instead, u-Spreading applies, copying the features of u
onto the (lengthened) final V. If the original medial u is in a closed syllable, it
is reduced to a by Medial V-Shortening (but only after u-Spreading has
applied). The output forms and suggested derivations are in (116).

(116) Derivation of Long Imperfectives

'gape' 'be obligatory'

/-bvlulvr-/

/-t-lbluliY-/

/-t-lbluluY-/

-t-lbluluY-

/-hussvl-/

/-t-lhussil-/

/-t-lhussul-/

/-t-ihsssul-/

-t-lhassul-

comment

lexical stem

after LoImpfP ablaut

u-Spreading (119)

Medial V-Shortening (120)

attested form

Similarly, the simple VblN of 'be obligatory' is a-hussal. The PI of such

heavy VblN's lengthens the final schwa, usually to i. With a-hussal, the

resulting PI appears not at #i-hussil-aen, rather (in T-ka at least) as

i-hassul-aen. For VblN α-blutar, the PI is i-blulur-aen with u-Spreading but

no shortening (§8.6.1.4).

u-Spreading and Medial V-Shortening also apply to V-final stems that

have u in a preceding syllable. For unaugmented V-final verbs (§7.3.1.14),

examples are -tvruru- 'go down' (PerfP -ietrara-, LoImpfP -t-ltruru- with

u-Spreading) and -fuggu- 'be detached' (PerfP -sffugga-, LoImpfP -t-lfaggu-

with u-Spreading and Medial V-Shortening). For V-final verbs with Augment

-t- (§7.3.1.16), examples are -bvlvmbulu- 'roll' (PerfP -asblaembalas-t,

LoImpfP -t-iblsmbulu-t with u-Spreading) and -fuffvru- 'scrub' (PerfP

-affuffaeras-t, LoImpfP -t-ifa ffaru-t with u-Spreading and Medial

V-Shortening). 'Scrub' shows that u-Spreading can occur even when the

lexical u and the targeted stem-final V are separated by an intervening short-

voweled syllable (-fuffvru-). The correct syllabic shape for the input to the rule

is therefore ...CuCC(vC)u(C)- with the optional material in parentheses.

Medial V-Shortening in long imperfectives is not limited to u, though u is

overwhelmingly the most frequent target. There are no verbs known to me