A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

248 5 Noun phrase structure

(227) Prenominal Numerals

numeral masculine feminine

Ί' ly-aen (n-) ly-aet

[n- used before V-initial masculine noun]

'2' assin sasnat-st

'3' kaerddI I kaerad-aet

'4' aekkozι ι aekkoz-ast

'5' saemmos saemmos-aet

'6' sadisι ι sadls-aet

'7' aessa aessay-aet

'8' aettam asttam-ast

'9' taezza ta^zd-aet

' 10' maerdw maeraw-aet

The forms for ' 1' are discussed below.

In this position I regularly heard final-syllable accent on the masculine

forms. The penultimate accent on the feminine numerals '2' to '10' was also

clear. The feminine forms are identical, except at the onset, to the feminine

forms of trailing numerals in §5.1.2.1, just above, and the comments there

about the accent of the feminine forms are valid here.

The masculine counting and trailing forms are, however, unaccented. The

accents in the masculine prenominal forms could therefore be due to

compound accentuation, whereby a secondary accent appears on the final

syllable of the compound initial. In any event, I formulate the generalization as

(228).

(228) Final-Syllable Accent (Masculine Prenominal Numerals)

The final syllable of a numeral '2' to '9' is accented when it is

followed by the modified noun.

In most feminine numeral phrases '2' to '9', the feminine numeral ending

in -ait is followed by a noun beginning in t-a- (reduced form of FePl t-i-). In

the case of '2', there is yet another t just before the -aet. In practice, the -aet

suffix is usually elided in these phrases, though it does appear in careful

pronunciation. Thus saendt-aet "'t-a-msrw-en 'two tensomes (=twenty)' is

elided in normal speech to [saena'te'maerwen].

The prenominal forms for Ί' are exemplified in (229).

(229) a. ly-aen η "'ae-sed

one-Ma of Sg-donkey

'one male donkey'