A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

7.3 Verb classes and irregular verbs 375

c. long imperfective system

LoImpfP -t-asawaj-

LoImpfN -t-asiwij-

Prohib -t-aesawaj-

-t-ajawad-

-t-ajiwid-

-t-aejawad-

d. nominalization

VblN a-slwaj, a-slwaj a-jiwad, a-jiwad

If we focus first on the perfectives and the VblN, both 'gesture' and 'flee'
are exactly parallel to -CuCvC- stems like 'marry' in (375), above. The
common features are: a) the lexical high V is visible in the VblN; b) the
perfectives (and here we can throw in the Shlmpf) show Stem-Initial
V-Insertion but no CrGemination; and c) the perfectives have stem-wide
vocalism but respect V-Height Compromise, resulting in medial e in e.g. PerfP
-zesewasj- in (376) parallel to medial ο in e.g. PerfP -eedobaen- (375).
For 'gesture' in (376), the parallelism with the -CuCvC- stems extends
into the short imperfective system; compare Imprt siwsj 'gesture!' to duban
'marry!'. However, for 'flee' in (376), the vowel-quality features of the lexical
i are absent in Imprt jawasd, which has strict short imperfective melody
and does not compromise on V-height. Even 'gesture' has variants of this type.
Moreover, in the long imperfectives both 'gesture' and 'flee' show a
characteristic melody, in contrast to the melody for long
imperfectives of -CuCvC- stems (-t-ldubun- 'marry').
For T-ka, I can cite no other verb of the 'gesture' type in (376). The 'flee'
type, with its more radical generalization of melodies in short as well as
long imperfectives, is also found with the following underived stems, cited in
the diagnostic Imprt: bawaes 'be wounded', masael 'be sent' (frozen passive),
mawgd 'be young', zahaed 'fight holy war', and zawaeb 'reply'. Including
'flee' and 'gesture', five of the seven synchronically underived stems known to
me have w as medial C, suggesting that -CiCvC- is basically a variant of
-CuCvC- when C 2 is w. This is a dissimilatory phenomenon on a par with
others considered in §3.4.10. The remaining two 'flee' type stems are masa;l
'be sent', a frozen -m- mediopassive (cf. -usvl- 'run'), and the Arabic loan
zahasd 'fight holy war' whose lexical i was probably suggested by the Arabic
noun jihaad- (borrowed as Tamashek aelzihad) which likely suggested the
vocalism of Tamashek VblN a-zihad.
There is some interdialectal instability in the vocalism of these -CiCvC-
verbs. For 'gesture', Imprt siwaj is attested for T-ka and K-d, but other dialects
merge this verb with the 'flee' type and allow only melody in short
imperfectives, hence Imprt sawasj (or sawaeg) not only as a variant in T-ka but
also in A-grm, I, and R Some dialects do allow C,-Gemination in perfectives
and the inflectable Shlmpf. CrGemination is standard in A-grm, e.g. PerfP
-sssewaeg- 'gesture', and I can cite K-d -sessewaej-, cf. ungeminated -sesewasj-
in I, R, and T-ka.