Syllables and Gemination in Imperfective Stems in Tashlhiyt Berber

In Tahlhiyt Berber certain verbs form their imperfective stem by geminating one consonant. Since Dell and Elmedlaoui 1988, accounts of imperfective gemination have been based on syllable structure. Lahrouchi (2010) proposes an alternative analysis based on a binary-branching head-complement structure that regulates the distribution of consonant types in verbal roots. This paper argues that the syllable-based account is preferable and that it makes the head-complement structures advocated by Lahrouchi redundant.

Affiliations: 1: Centre de Recherches Linguistiques sur l’Asie Orientale, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, 131 Bd Saint-Michel, 75005 Paris Cedex 06, France dell@ehess.fr ; 2: Institut Universitaire de la Recherche Scientifique, Université Mohammed V—Souissi, Avenue Allal Al-Fassi, B.P. 6287. Rabat-Instituts, Rabat, Maroc elmedlaoui@yahoo.fr