The Negative Preterite in Kabyle Berber

International audienceThe verbal system of Kabyle Berber is based on vocalic alternations between Imperfective and Perfective stems. These alternations are reputed to be random and therefore lexicalized. In this article, I propose an analysis that accounts for them. I show that the Berber verbal stems are related by an apophonic derivation, as attested in German and Classical Arabic. This mechanism makes it possible to predict the vocalization of Berber Perfect stems on the basis of the vocalization of Imperfective stems. In the light of this analysis, the negative preterite stem, a stem that has always been considered to be lexicalized by the traditional grammars, proves to be derivable from its positive counterpart, the preterite stem