A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

390 7 Verbal morphology

c. <o i» vowel sequence, no Γ-m

'be thin' sadid- isdad -t-lsdad- t-a-sadde

'be smooth' salil- Islal -t-islal- t-a-salle

d. <o i» vowel sequence, Γ-m

'be cheap' raqqis- "irras -t-lnras- t-a-nrase

short vowels only in PerfP

e.<o 9» vowel sequence, no Γ-m

'be sour' samam- Ismam -t-ismam- t-a-samme

f. <o 3» vowel sequence, Γ-m

'be short' jazzal- Tjzal -t-ijzal- ta-jazzal-t

'be short' käs sal- Iksal -t-iksal- t-a-ksale

'be feeble' rakkam- Irkam -t-lrkam- t-aerraekasm-t

The Resit stems, not shown here, are expressed by the ablaut formative
χ-pcl with no sign of the usual Resit length formative χ-pcl. This is seen in
the Resit forms for the short-V stems in (386.e-f), e.g. ssmam-, jazzal-. In
verbs whose postconsonantal V is short, the absence of χ-pcl is diagnostic of
status as adjectival verb. The Resit form is very common with adjectival verbs,
since e.g. stative 'be red' is expressed in the Resit (rather than an
imperfective).
Having presented the clear cases of perfective melody in (385) and
those of melody in (386), I now turn to some cases involving
phonological ambiguity due to BLC's, complicated by dialectal variation in the
perfective. Consider (387), where the LoImpfP is omitted (it is predictable
from the Imprt, as in the preceding tables).

(387) Adjectival Perfective with Ambiguous or Melody Due to
BLC's

gloss PerfP Imprt VblN/Abstr

a. 'be big' maeqqasr- (maqqar-) "irmrar t-a-mvare

mseqqor- (maqqur-)

b. 'be useful' fseror- (farur-) Ifrar t-s-farre

c. 'be narrow' kaerroz- (karruz-) Ikraz t-a-kraze

kaeroz- (karuz-)

For 'be big' (387.a), since both qq (geminated Y, §3.1.1.3) and r are BLC's
(§3.1.2.2), I cannot determine whether the vocalic sequence is «ae ae» or «a a»