A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

8.6 Verbal nouns 513

h. t-üCi-t-t, t-ICu-t-t for -uCu- (α/u subtype)

'fall' Idu t-udi-t-t (A-grm) —

t-Idu-t-t (R) t-ldu-t-en

'be better' Ifu t-üfi-t-t (A-grm) t-üfa-ten

t-üfi-ten

t-ifu-t-t (K-d) —

t-äfl-t-t (A-grm) —

A masculine pattern i3CC (iCC, geminated dPP) is discernible in
(542.a,c-d). Such accented C-final monosyllables take MaPl -taen rather than
-sen (§4.1.2.2). However, the combination uCC-taen is rather awkward
phonologically because of the triple cluster. T-ka usually puts in an epenthetic
schwa, while other dialects have a full V (K-d in particular systematically uses
stem-final α when the VblN has vocalism), or else they degeminate the
PP of άΡΡ to result in άΡ-taen (e.g. as-taen).
iramm in (542.b), from -υπηυ-, is evidentally resyllabified. It shows the
usual T-ka resyllabification pattern including Epenthetic-Vowel Accentuation
(70), and for VblN's, Stem-Final Gemination (71). We will see more examples
of this with VblN's of heavy stems, below. However, in the heavy stems,
adding MaPl -asn undoes the resyllabification and the gemination, whereas in
PI iramm-an (not #irm-an) the schwa and the geminate are unaffected (but the
shifted accent is erased, cf. (555)).
The verb 'leave' (542.d) is unusual in that the stem is basically -uyyu-
(PerfP -öyya-) but has Imprt syy with shortened V. We get VblN dyy where
we might have expected #iyy on the model of (542.a), but #lyy would have
homorganic V and semivowel, and the choice of dyy is consistent with other
V-semivowel dissimilations. Of course dyy is also modeled on the dPP in
(542.c).
The verbs -iba- 'become lost' (§7.3.2.16) and -iwi- 'be born' (§7.3.2.17)
in (542.e-f) are structurally isolated, irregular verbs. 'Be tranquil' (542.g) has
dialectally variable imperfectives including forms with initial short V, and the
feminine VblN shown is of the high-frequency t-a-CaPPaw-t pattern
illustrated above for -vCCu- stems.
Finally, in (542.h) we see that -uCCu- verbs of the α/u subclass have
various feminine VblN's. For -udu- 'fall' (542.h), the usual VblN is suppletive
e-jaedael, though feminine nominals t-üdi-t-t and t-idu-t-t are attested
dialectally.

8.6.1.2 Verbal nouns of light C-final verbs

The productive verbal nouns for light C-final verbs are summarized
schematically in (543). Pluralization of these VblN's is normally suffixal.