A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

226 4 Nominal and pronominal morphology

(202) Sg -CvCu-, PI (t-)VCCa or A-grm (t)-l-CaCa

singular plural gloss

a. masculine

α-baejo 1-bja 'udder covering'

ά-faezo l-faza (A-grm) 'markouba grass'

[PI alsol-fazw-an]

b. feminine

t-a-baeka-t-t t-l-bka 'jujube tree'

t-a-ksebo-t-t t-Vkaba (A-grm) 'basket'

Cases of Syncope (applying to Pl-stem-initial /-CaCV.../) with three or
four syllables in the Sg stem are given in (203).

(203) Sg -CvCuCuC-, PI (t-)i-CG3CaC

singular plural gloss

a. masculine, C-final, with «u α» surface vocalism

ae-raerarad i-Yrurad 'thick-knee (bird)'

a-zaelalamι ι i-zlulam 'lizard'

b. feminine, C-final, with «u α» surface vocalism

t-ae-kasraket-tI t t-i-knikad I 'shame'

t-as-masrater-t t-i-mrutar 'need'

t-ae-maskarkez-t t-i-mkurkaz (T-ka) 'Aerva bush'

c. feminine, V-final, with «u α» surface vocalism

t-ae-daemamu-t-t t-l-dmuma 'nipple'

t-ae-xaebabu-t-t t-l-xbuba 'gaping hole'

d. feminine, V-final, with «9 3 α» surface vocalism

t-a-kaefaeqkffifo-t-t t-i-kfaqkafa '3rd stomach (of cow)'

t-a-kaeyasqkaeyo-t-t t-i-kayaqkaya 'oxpecker' (A-grm)

e. feminine, V-final, with «u 3 α» surface vocalism

t-a-faedofiedo-t-t t-i-fdufada 'Tragus grass'

For 'young billygoat' the Sg is a-daswal. Alongside the common suffixal
PI i-daewal-aen, I recorded syncopated 1-dwal-aen as a variant for the T-md
speaker.
The basic rules at work in the plurals in (200-3) can be formalized as
(204).