A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

13.1 Adverbial clauses 667

My T-ka informant added har w-ά 'until this' = 'still' (i.e. 'while still...')

before the and! clause. For har w-ά see also §11.3.4-5.

(795) osael-a2Y har w-ά [sndl-Mü i-ksa]

run.PerfP-lSgS until this [before-\lSgO 3MaSgS-eat.PerfP]

Ί ran away before it ate (=could eat) me.'

This speaker also provided an alternative construction with similar sense,

but replacing the and! phrase by a simple negative.

(796) osael-asv har w-ά [waer-\h"i i-ksa]

run.PerfP-lSgS until this [Neg-\lSgO 3MaSgS-eat.PerfN]

Ί ran away before it ate me.' (lit. "[while] it hadn't yet eaten me")

Still another construction, attested in realis as well as irrealis contexts,

involves the conjunction t-azzar '(only) thereafter...', which is not quite

identical to the fixed 3FeSg Resit verb t-aszz0r 'it-Fe has preceded'. This

conjunction is placed at the beginning of a Shlmpf clause denoting the

subsequent eventuality. Cf. verb -vzzvr- 'precede'.

(797) a. n-ass-amdü-het alkattab w-ά,

lPlS-Caus-finish-Hort book Ma-Dem.Sg

t-szzar n-as-asnt

thereafter lPlS-Caus-begin.Shlmpf

daer w-α yyasd-aen

in Ma-Dem.Sg other-MaSg

'Let's finish this book, then we begin on the other one.'

[= 'Let's finish this book before we begin on the other.']

aktab t-azzar

read.Imprt thereafter

'Write, then (you may) read.'

[= 'Write before you-Sg read.']

t-9TT3-d

2S-read.ShImpf-2SgS

akse-γ t-azzdr

eat.PerfP-lSgS thereafter

Ί ate, then I went to bed.' [K-d]

anse-γ

go.to.bed.PerfP-lSgS

In my K-d data, azzdr is equivalent to t-azzar. In my limited data from Im
dialect, azzdr is attested in azzar a-\d 0-aej "ae-kaesa 'it must (=will certainly)
rain'.
One can also express 'before' as a simple preposition dat 'in front of plus
a VblN. Thus alongside and! i-waet "a-janna 'before the rain struck (=fell)',
one can say (798).