Amal

See also:

• lexicon
  • affixes
  • roots
  • thematic lexicon
  • verb charts
• phrases & translations

Introduction

Amal is meant to be a personal conlang and despite appearances and structure is not intended as an IAL. Amal is inspired by Semitic languages but incorporates aspects of numerous natural languages in an effort to be euphonious and easy to use/learn.

Phonology

consonants

	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Labiovelar	Glottal
Plosives	p   b	t   d		k   g		ʔ (q)
Nasals	m	n
Fricatives		s	ʃ (sh)
Approximants		l	j (y)		w	h
Trill		r

Note: The glottal stop /ʔ/ q, is used as a "buffer" to keep vowels apart when adding suffixes.

vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i~ɪ		u~ʊ
Mid	e~ɛ		o
Open		a~ə

Vowel length is productive and is marked by an acute accent. á é í ú

• ai - /a͡ɪ/ (this is the only diphthong in Amal)
• o - /o/ is extremely rare and is mostly used in proper names

Verbal Morphology

The verbal inflection of Amal is quite simple. There are only three tenses (present, past, future), plus the conditional and the imperative, each marked by person and number. There are two aspects (perfective, continuous) and various moods that are also marked on the verb (usually between the verb root and the person).

Nouns

Number

Amal nouns can be singular, dual, or plural.

• kup-á - dog
  • kup-ik - (two) dogs
    • kup-im - dogs

• -ína - collective

Gender

Amal does not have grammatical gender. However, where desired, masculine individuals may be distinguished by the suffix -ul, and feminine ones by -en. For example, dashá or dashin is "sibling", dashul "brother", and dashen "sister". However, gender is not generally used unless there is some reason for distinguishing it.

Case

nominative

The nominative case is the basic uninflected form of the noun.

accusative

The accusative case marks the direct object of a verb.

• -wa

genitive

The genitive case is used to show possession and is placed immediately after the first member of a genitive construction.

• -ai / -ya

dative

The dative for the beneficiary of an action, indirect object, or motion towards. Unlike other case endings, it has morphed to being a prefix and has only one form, used in all instances. The exception to this is the form used with pronouns, ib-.

• bi-

locative

The locative case indicates the place or time at which something happens. Its meaning can be translated by the English prepositions 'to', 'at', 'on', 'in' etc.

• -da

ablative

The ablative case carries the meaning "from, off of" and shows separation away from an object. It is also used in comparisons and in this case translates as "than".

• -sha

comitative / instrumental

The instrumental/comitative case denotes accompaniment. It is translated as "with", "together with", "by", "with" or "through". An important use of the instrumental is as an adverbial, since Amal lacks a morphological adverb.

• -ha / -ak

Pronouns

Pronouns in Amal are marked for number, person, and case. There are three persons. The stand-alone personal pronouns are not used widely as the person is evident from the personal verb ending. They are used for emphasis only in their simple form as the verb form itself already points to the person. This is similar to Spanish where a person will say comprendo - "I understand" instead of Yo comprendo - "I understand".

	singular	plural
1	-an	-uk
2	-ti / -e	-ut / -í
3	-u / -a / -il	-um

case

	nominative	accusative	genitive	dative
1s	-an	eyan	nai	iban
2s	-ti / -e	eti / eye	tai	ibti
3s	-u / -a / -il	eya	ai	ibu
1p	-uk	eyuk	kai	ibuk
2p	-ut / -í	eyut	wai	ibut
3p	-um	eyum	mai	imbu *

• imbu is a result of metathesis, a not uncommon occurrence in Amal.

direct object incorporation

Direct object pronouns are incorporated to the verb inflection. So, instead of eya aryeshan (I saw her), aryeshana is grammatical. The DO pronouns are not used when the object is specified. So, instead of kawalwa aryeshanu (I saw (it) the horse), kawalwa aryeshan is grammatical.

verb	tense / aspect / mood	subject	object
ary	-esh	-an	-a
see	simple past	1sg	3sg.FEM
I saw her.