A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

4.1 Noun morphology 195

(172) Derivation of PluraPi-m-aeYt-an 'trees'

/i-m-aerti-aen/ underlying (after ablaut derivation of stem)

/i-m-sert-an/ VV-Contraction accompanied by χ-Erasure

l-m-aert-an Default Accentuation

In (171.b), e-m-aesasww 'water source' shows resyllabification (including
Stem-Final Gemination) in the Sg.
The cases in (171.c) are survivals of the original V-final Sg stem shapes
that were once characteristic of the much more common types (171.a-b). In the
Timbuktu area, only a handful of lexicalized nominals (no longer derived by
productive ablaut processes) have this Sg shape. On the other hand, A-grm
retains many Sg stem-final V's, even in cognates for some of the Timbuktu-
area C-final singulars in (171.a-b).
I have argued that -an can be derived by VV-Contraction even where
(except in eastern dialects) the Sg no longer shows a stem-final V. The
hallmark of contracted -an is retaining the vocalism of the Sg stem, rather than
overlaying on it the PI vocalic melody . With this background, I am
inclined to include other cases where -an appears to be added to the Sg stem
without melodic change as belonging in this section. However, if the Sg stem
happens to have only high vowels, when MaPl -an or FePl -en is added we
cannot tell whether the PI melody has applied.
In (173), the Sg and PI stems show a mid-height or low V, so there is
clearly no PI melody. These are probably cases where an original stem-
final V has been lost.

(173) Contracted -an Plurals of C-final Singulars

singular plural gloss

a. Sg with penultimate accent, Lexical Accent Erasure in PI

indeterminate

e-baeqr l-basgr-an 'floodplain'

e-baett l-bastt-an 'lowland'

e-daegg 1-daegg-an 'place'

e-fasyd Ί-faeyd-an 'drinking trough'

[PI alsol-faeyd-aen]

ά-raerh Wserh-an 'shield'

e-jaens Ί-jaens-an 'river'

ά-kaert 1-kaert-an 'chick'

[also ά-kart, Pll-ksrt-an]

e-kaekk 1-kaekk-an 'spur-winged goose'

e-taeqq 1-taeqq-an 'male ostrich'

[PI also l-taeqq-asn]