Clitic fronting in Tamashek (Mali Tuareg)

Résumé

This article provides a comprehensive overview of the positioning of verbal clitics (“Satellites”) in Tamashek, the Tuareg language of Mali. Based on the analysis of published texts, it complements work by Jeffrey Heath, and aims to provide a more exhaustive description of the system. Like in most other varieties of Amazigh, Tamashek verbal clitics can come both before and after the verb. Similar conditions are found as elsewhere, but the details of the system are different. Thus, grammatical person plays a role in the position of the clitics relative to each other. Moreover, in contexts where the clitics are normally preverbal, directional clitics can have double expression, both before, and after the verb. Finally, the article provides a fine-grained description of what happens when several conditions for clitic fronting apply in one single phrase, a subject that has not been studied in detail before.