A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

10.3 Pronominal clitics 607

(672) R Dialectal Features

a. 3MaSg clitic often Ati after a C and -\tti after a V, either phrase-

finally or before word beginning in a C.

b. Stem-final α of verb contracts with V of both 2nd and 3rd person

object clitics to give uniform i (not e).

c. After high V, the lSg and 1P1 clitics (object = dative) require a

homorganic semivowel rather than h (e.g. ...uw-\a-hi versus

T-ka ...uAha-hi).

Speakers of R dialect therefore often say 1-wastAti 'he hit him' for T-ka
Ί-wast At, (future) a-\tfi t-seijY 'she will kill him' for T-ka α At t-as-ηγ, t-sqrAi
'she killed him' for T-ka t-aqrAe, and i-qri-\n 'he killed them' for T-ka
Ί-ηγβΛη.
My limited data on the Im dialect show the syllabic 3MaSg allomorph as
in R, hence ajayAti 'tie it-Ma!'. However, I also recorded e rather than i in
t-aqrAe 'she killed him'.
For K-d, as in R, we get a homorganic semivowel rather than h after a high
V, e.g. aglüwAa-hi 'go (away) for me!'.
For A-grm, the 3MaSg object clitic is Ai rather than Ae.

10.3.2 Dative clitics

Pronominal dative clitics are shown in (673). The clitics show no sign of the

prenominal Dative preposition e or 1 (y-) (§6.3). Instead, the basic Dative

morpheme in clitics is Aha-, reduced in some contexts to Aa-, and for T-ka

reduced in some other contexts to Aha-. The lSg and 1P1 dative clitics are

identical to the corresponding object clitics, but the 2nd and 3rd persons

distinguish dative from object clitics.

(673) Dative Pronominal Clitics (T-ka)

person full preverbal after C after α

lSg -\ha-hi Ahi Aa-hi -\0-hi

1P1 Aha-nasY Aha-naer

2MaSg Aha-k Aha-k

Aa-nasY -\0-naev

Αα-k -\0-k

2FeSg Aha-m Aha-m Aa-m A0-m

2MaPl Aha-waen Aha-waen

2FePl Aha-kmaet Aha-kmaet

3Sg Aha-s Aha-s

Αα-waen A0-waen

Aa-kmaet -\0-kmaet

Αα-s A0-s

3MaPl Aha-sasn -\ha-saen

3FePl Aha-snaet Aha-snaet

Αα-saen A0-sasn

Αα-snast A0-snaet