A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

7.3 Verb classes and irregular verbs 423

object clitic from occurring after -mast or -nast, in the postconsonantal form -\t,
since geminated tt is audible word-finally after a V (as in FeSg suffix complex
-t-t after V-final noun stem). The absence of -\t after -maet or -naet is therefore
a morphophonological rule, deleting the (semantically meaningless) clitic after
a subject suffix ending in t.

For the R speaker, who was also checked carefully, the status of the object
clitic is quite different. For this speaker, -alle seems to have been reanalysed
as a simple perfective stem variant (used in the absence of a subject suffix).
As a consequence, 3MaSg clitic -\t is also absent from the paradigm, except
that it may be added optionally to the pronominally suffixed forms, denoting
the specific location. Some examples are in (425).

(425) Existential/Locational -vllu- (R)

a. i-lle

3MaSgS-be.Reslt

'He/it exists.' (= 'He/it is here.')

b. allci-n

be.Reslt-3MaPlS

They exist.' (= They are here.')

c. war i-lla

Neg 3MaSgS-be.PerfN

'He/It is not here.' (= There is none.')

d. t-alle 't-ae-maet-t

3FeSgS-be.Reslt Fe-Sg-woman-FeSg

There is a woman.' (= Ά woman is here.')

e. war alle-n

Neg be.PerfN-3MaPlS

'They-Ma are not here.'

The verb -vllu- can also be used in the expression i-ll-\e s ... 'it is possible
that...'.
Another, much less common verb -vmvl- can be used as an alternative to
-vllu-. It too generally takes a 3MaSg object clitic, as in vi-msel-\t 'he existed,
was here'. This verb is morphologically regular and has a full set of stems (2Sg
Imprt amalAt 'be!', LoImpfP -ammal- or -t-ammdl-).