A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

474 8 Verbal derivation

The inflection of mediopassives of input stems beginning and/or ending in
a full vowel is illustrated in (484).

(484) Mediopassive Inflection for -uCvC- and -vC(C)i> Stems

-dCVC-

'be stolen'

-m-ikvr-

-uCu-

'be open'

-m-iru-

-vCCu- (α/u type)

'be dislocated'

-n-vbdu-

a. perfective system

PerfP -sem-ekaer- -aem-era-

Reslt -aem-ekser- -Eem-era-

PerfN -sem-ekser- -sem-era-

-snn-sbda-ι

-ann-ibda-ι

-ann-sbda-

b. short imperfective system

Shlmpf -sem-akaer- -sem-ar

Imprt m-akasr m-ar

-senn-asbd ι

n-£ebd

c. long imperfective system

LoImpfP -t-am-akar-

LoImpfN

Prohib

-t-sm-ikir-

-t-eem-akar-

-t-am-ara-

-t-sm-iri-

-t-sem-ara-

-t-an-aebda-ι

-t-m-abdu-

-t-sn-abdi-

-t-aen-aebda-ι

-t-sn-abdi-

d. nominalizations

VblN a-m-lksr a-m-lr a-n-abd ι

Other examples similar to 'be stolen' in (484) are (PerfP) -sem-ehser- 'be
snatched' (Imprt m-ahaev), -£em-elaey- 'be cut', -aen-elaes- 'be repeated',
-«m-ewaed- 'come of age' (lit. 'be reached'), -aem-ewaey- 'be brought'. The
verb PerfP -aenemass- 'be tested' (namass) is a distinct lexical item but might
be a frozen and semantically specialized Mediop -aen-emass- (cf. -umvs-
'wipe'). Other possible cases are -misvl- 'be sent on an errand' (PerfP
-gemesasl-), which may be related to the (albeit intransitive) -usvl- 'run' (PerfP
-osasl-). Another possible case is -miwvd- 'be a young adult (=reach young
adulthood)', if related to -uwvd- 'arrive, reach'.Note that even T-ka has no
problem with medial perfective e in mediopassives, though in other contexts
(especially causatives) this dialect shows a strong preference for perfective ο
even when the imperfectives and VblN show i instead of u.
The -m-iCvC- and -m-iCu- mediopassives, cf. 'be stolen' and 'be open' in
(484), do not apply CVGemination in the perfectives or in the Shlmpf. For
-uhvr- 'have in common' I recorded two mediopassive variants, -m-ihvr- and
-m-uhvr- 'be held in common', both for T-ka dialect. The two mediopassives
are distinguishable in the VblN (a-mihar, a-muhsr). In the imperfectives, the