Tashlhiyt Berber triconsonantal roots : a binary-branching head-complement structure

This paper deals with the segmental composition of the triconsonantal roots in Tashlhiyt Berber and the constraints they undergo. Unlike Classical Arabic, Tashlhiyt Berber does not tolerate voiceless roots. Each root contains at least one sonorant most often preceded by an obstruent. Moreover, if a root contains two sonorants then the second one is more sonorous. Based on these structural and distributional constraints, it is proposed that all triconsonantal roots are basically binary in that only two segments of the root undergo phonological constraints. Moreover, it is suggested that these roots display a binary-branching head-complement structure. Thereafter, evidence from the Imperfective formation show that Tashlhiyt Berber Morphology is sensitive to the segmental composition of the roots