A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

354 7 Verbal morphology

(357) Alternative Derivations for Suffixed Resultative Stems of -vnsu-

'excuse'

2MaPl 2FePl comments

a. X#-pcl protects stem-final V from Presuffixal α-Shortening

/t-snsa-aem/ /t-ansd-maet/ after ablaut

— — Presuffixal α-Shortening

(blocked)

t-ansci-m t-ansd-maet VV-Contraction

b. at least up to C, of subject suffix in domain of ablaut (preferred

analysis)

/t-ansa-aem/

/t-ansEe-asm/

/t-snsae-m/

/[t-anM-m]/

/t-snsa-maet/

/t-ansae-mast/

/[t-ansd-m]aet/

note: [...] shows rebracketing of ablaut domain

t-ansa-m t-ansd-maet surface forms

after basic perfective ablaut

Presuffixal α-Shortening

VV-Contraction

Resit ablaut (χ-pcl, χ-pcl)

Accentuation is omitted in the first steps of these derivations (Default
Accentuation is overridden by the ablaut accent formative and so has no
audible effect.)
I prefer the analysis in (357.b). In effect, it teases apart two kinds of
ablaut: the part that applies to all perfective stems (i.e. the vocalic melody and
Melodic Attachment), and the local formatives (χ-pcl, χ-pcl) that are unique
to the Resit stem. The Resit-specific features are attached at a later point in
derivations; in effect, they are attached to surface PerfP stems, with the proviso
that for light V-final stems (and only these stems) at least up to the first C of a
subject suffix is within the domain of ablaut. In the case of these light V-final
stems, this rebracketing allows the Resit forms with /-aeP/ subject suffixes to
create a /-v(C)CaeP-/ unit that satisfies the requirements for non-vacuous
application of the length formative χ-pcl, so for these suffixal categories the
Resit has a lengthened (as well as accented) stem-final V.
I will now show that the same rebracketing applies in the PerfN. For these
same light V-final verbs, the PerfN differs audibly from the PerfP only in the
nonsingular 2nd and 3rd person subject forms, which have the characteristic e
vowel of the PerfN. In (358) I illustrate this with the PerfP and PerfN of
another verb of this class, -vhlu- 'weep' (which metathesizes the two C's when
they are adjacent, §3.2.2.1).