A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

458 8 Verbal derivation

'stick in' -sss-urma- s-iram -s-lrmu- a-s-iramm

[Imprt also s-lrmu]

'make tranquil' -sezz-ozja- z-lzj -z-azja- —

-z-izju-

There is some instability in these paradigms, some of which are attested

for only one or two informants. 'Widen' and 'make peer' are from intransitive

inputs with no u vowels, while 'stick in' and 'make tranquil' are from

intransitive inputs with final u in the imperfectives. One could suggest basic

representations /-ilwu-/, /-ijju-/, /-irmu-/, and /-izju-/, where "υ" represents

unrounded α or hi. Here -ilwu- and -urmu- have clusters lw and rm that

require resyllabification (§3.2.4, §3.3.2) when word-final (i.e. in the Imprt and

Shlmpf). The two verbs with no lexical u show melody in the LoImpfP.

The instability of vocalism in PerfP forms of such stems is seen in the shift to

medial ο (avoiding e) in 'widen' and 'make tranquil', while 'make peer' has i

and 'stick in' switches its final u into medial position.

This accounts for all non-augment V-final verbs that alternate between

final α (perfectives) and III (short imperfectives). It remains to consider the a/u

and u/u subclasses of -v(C)Cu- verbs. It turned out to be difficult to elicit

causatives for these verbs. For example, I was disappointed at being unable to

elicit a causative for -vsu- 'cough', which ought to be have been reasonable

semantically. For these subclasses, there are two causatives in common use

(467). The basic causative forms are -s-undu- and -s-unfu-.

(467) Causative Stems for -vCCu- Verbs (u/u and α/u subtypes)

gloss PerfP Imprt LoImpfP VblN

'churn' -sss-unda- s-und -s-indu- a-s-und

'rest' -ass-unfa- s-ünf -s-lnfu- a-s-unf

The underived input for the first of these is 'be churned', with PerfP

-sndu- and Imprt sndu, hence u/u subclass.

It is less clear whether 'rest' has any connection to underived PerfP -anfa-

and Imprt anfu 'be useful to' (α/u subclass). These are part of a complex

cognate and borrowing set also including Hassaniya Arabic t-naffas and

Songhay funsu 'rest, relax, breathe', and Arabic Vnff and Songhay nafa 'be

useful'. One possibility: -s-unfu- was the original causative of PerfP -snfa-,

but the relationship is now opaque due to semantic shifts under foreign

influence. In any event, -s-unfu- in (467) is causative in form, since the long

imperfective has no -t- prefix.

If 'be churned' is analysed as having a basic form -undu-, where the u is

initial rather than final, the causative -s-undu- is unremarkable (see §7.3.1.4).

For the shift of u to the final syllable in -s-infu-, -s-indu-, leaving i behind, see

u-Spreading and Medial V-Shortening §3.4.9.3. The LoImpfN is -s-andu-, so