A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

402 7 Verbal morphology

the short imperfectives. In (398), 'open' represents the -uCi> subtype with
unclustered C; the other verbs of this type are -usu- 'butcher' (PerfP -osa-,
Impf as, VblN ass or άζζ, with s/z alternation, §3.1.1.5), dialectal -uku- '(fire)
be lit' (PerfP -oka-, etc.) and -usu- 'arrive, come' (PerfP -osa-, etc.).
The perfectives in (398) all have «ο α» vocalic sequence, arguably with
stem-wide melody and stem-initial (treated as) /u/ combining as ο by
V-Height Compromise. The short imperfectives have melody, as in
short imperfectives of the α/ι subclass of -v(C)Ci> verbs and those of -uCvC-
verbs. The h! at the end of the short imperfectives has its usual range of
surface expressions, contracting with suffix-initial /ae/ to produce a, appearing
as a before C-initial subject, suffix, and disappearing word-finally. Shlmpf
examples, using the verb 'open': 3MaSg Future ad 0-ar 'he will open', 3FePl
ad ara-nset, and 3MaPl ad ara-n. The long imperfectives have strict ,
except that A-grm has (or sometimes ) vocalism, thus LoImpfP
-t-idh- in most dialects but -t-adh- or -t-ddha- in A-grm. A similar dialectal
split occurs in long imperfectives of -uCvC- verbs.

The VblN ICC is basic for the -uCCu- verbs in (398). On the other hand,
dCC is typical for -uCu- verbs (in addition to arr 'opening' I can cite 'butcher'
with PerfP -osa- and VblN ass or άζζ).
In the subtype -uPQu-, when the final υ is dropped (short and long
imperfectives), if Q is a sonorant it forces resyllabiflcation, which takes the
form of Final-CC Schwa-Insertion (44) accompanied (in T-ka only) by
Epenthetic-Vowel Accentuation (70) (§3.2.4, §3.4.2). The two -uPQu- verbs
that resyllabify are shown in (399).

(399) Resyllabiflcation in Imprt and LoImpfP

Imprt LoImpfP

final before V final before V

a. -udwu- 'leave in afternoon' (cf. PerfP -odwa-)

adaw adw- -t-idaw -t-ldw-

[= /adwi/] [= /-t-idwi-/]

b. -ulwu- 'be spacious' (cf. PerfP -olwa-)

alaw alw- -t-ilaw -t-ilw-

[= /alwi/] [= /-t-ilwi-/]

As usual, resyllabiflcation fails to apply before a V-initial suffix or clitic.
Nonsingular imperative forms are 2MaPl adw-aet and älw-aet, and 2FePl
adwa-maet and alwa-maet. Likewise for the LoImpfP we have 3MaPl t:ldw3-n
'they leave in the afternoon' (suffix -asn).
In dialects other than T-ka, Epenthetic-Vowel Accentuation fails to apply:
Imprt alsw 'be spacious' instead of T-ka alaw, likewise word-final LoImpfP
-t-ltaw instead of -t-ilaw. Some Gao-area dialects, including A-grm, at least