Amal

See also:

• lexicon
  • thematic lexicon
• phrases

Introduction

Amal is meant to be a personal conlang and despite appearances and structure is not intended as an IAL.

Vocabulary and grammatical features are inspired by or taken directly from:

• Arabic (ara)
• Basque (bas)
• Japanese (jap)
• Quechua (que)
• South Slavic (sla)
• Spanish (spa)
• Turkish (tur)

Phonology

23 of the 26 Latin letters are used, leaving q, w and x unused. All letters are pronounced like their IPA equivalents with a few exceptions.

• c - /ʃ/, /t͡ʃ/ or /t͡s/ without confusion
• e - /e/ or /ɛ/ without confusion
• j - /ʒ/
• ny - /ɲ/ (rare)
• u - /w/ when followed by another vowel
• y - /j/
• ' - /ʔ/ the glottal stop separates non-diphthonged vowels.

buffer letters

Amal makes use of two buffer letters -y- and -o- mainly to keep vowels apart when adding suffixes, or consonants apart that form bulky clusters.

Numbers

cardinal	ordinal	fraction	English
nul			0; zero
ua	meua	uaji	1; one
ni	meni	niji	2; two
uc	meyuc	ucoji	3; three
yon	meyon	yonji	4; four
go	mego	goji	5; five
ca	meca	caji	6; six
seb	meseb	sebji	7; seven
ok	meyok	okoji	8; eight
nen	menen	nenji	9; nine
da	meda	daji	10; ten
sad	mesad	sadoji	100; hundred

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).

conjugation

There is only one regular paradigm or conjugation. There are a few irregular verbs, covered later. The personal endings are uniform within each conjugation:

• -an - 1sg - I
• -at - 2sg - you
• -a - 3sg - he / she
• -uk - 1pl - we
• -ut - 2pl - you
• -um - 3pl - they

infinitive

Verbs are listed in the lexicon in the infinitive: tenek, amek, hamak.

The verb root, the basis of most of the tenses, is formed by removing the endings -ek or -mak.

present tense

The present is formed by adding the personal endings to the verb root.

• banek - to build

banan - I build

banat - you build

bana - he / she builds

banuk - we build

banut - you build

banum - they build

past tense

The past is formed by adding the personal endings to the verb root and the infix -i(y)-.

• savek - to know

saviyan - I knew

saviyat - you knew

saviya - he / she knew

saviyuk - we knew

saviyut - you knew

saviyum - they knew

future tense

The future is formed by adding the personal endings to the verb root and the infix -u(y)-.

• kucek - to cook

kucuyan - I will cook

kucuyat - you will cook

kucuya - he / she will cook

kucuyuk - we will cook

kucuyut - you will cook

kucuyum - they will cook

moods

The various moods in Amal tend to be marked by an infix attached to the verb, but can also be expressed by auxiliary verbs.

irrealis

The irrealis mood is used to indicate that something is unreal, or in doubt, or merely possible or desired. It can suggest a future that is more-or-less probable. It can also convey a polite request. It can be used in various situations where many languages would use subjunctive or conditional moods, and it often corresponds to the English word "would":

• icasuk

drink-IRR-1pl

If we drink

The a in the irrealis infix changes to i for past tense and u for future.

• amisa

love-PST.IRR-3sg

If she loved

• kucusumla

cook-FUT.IRR-3pl-NEG

If they will not cook

• cadusan inti bunyusa

be.happy-IRR.FUT-1sg sun shine-IRR-3sg

I would be happy if the sun were shining.

imperative

The imperative is formed by adding -e to the verb root.

• nobe!

give-IMP

Give!

• yemeyuk!

eat-IMP-1pl

Let's eat!

interrogative

The imperative is formed by adding -em to the verb root.

• inti bunyema?

sun shine-Q-3sg

Is the sun shining?

negative

The negative is formed by adding -la at the end of the verb construction.

• savanla

know-1sg-NEG

I do not know.

Nominal morphology

Nouns in Amal have five cases (nominative, genitive, accusative, dative, instrumental), and two numbers (singular and plural). The two genders (masculine and feminine) can be shown but are usually not indicated.

gender

Gender is typically not indicated. If necessary, nouns may be suffixed with -uj (male) or -en (female):

• zalduj / zalden

a stallion / a mare

case

Amal has separate endings for each of the four cases, they are invariable and are always final.

nominative

The basic form of each noun, and the one cited in the lexicon, is the nominative singular. All the other forms can be derived from it.

genitive

The genitive is formed by adding -in the end of the noun.

• bet mujin

house man-GEN

The man's house.

• ketabim mujimin

book-PL man-PL-GEN

The men's books.

accusative

The accusative is formed by adding -un the end of the noun.

• ajbun necan

answer-ACC need-1sg

I need an answer.

• zaldimun ra'iya

horse-PL-ACC see-PST-3sg

She saw horses.

dative

The dative is formed by adding -ye the end of the noun.

• betoye va'uya

house-DAT go-fut-3sg

He will go to the house.

• eyemun zaldaye nobuk

food-ACC horse-DAT give-1pl

We are giving food to the horse.

instrumental

The instrumental is formed by adding -ec the end of the noun.

Word Order

Word order in Amal is generally subject-object-verb.

• I want a book. - ketab-un has-an - book-OBL want-1sg

• Adjectives and nouns in the genitive case go after the nouns which they modify, post-positions go after the nouns or clauses that they modify, and modals go after the verbs that they modify and subsequently take all agglutinative suffixes. However, adverbs go before their verbs.

Nouns

morphology

case

case	infix	example	English
Nominative	-	bet	house
Oblique	-un	betun	to the house; in the house
Genitive	-in	betin	the house's; of the house
Vocative	-ya	betoya	Oh house!
Instrumental	-ec	betec	using the house; with the house; via the house

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.

Pronoun Declension

	NOM	ACC	DAT	GEN
1sg	an	ahan	eyan	anai
2sg	at	ahat	eyat	atai
3sg	a / al	ahal	eya(l)	alai
1pl	uk	ahuk	eyuk	ukai
2pl	ut	ahut	eyut	utai
3pl	um	ahum	eyum	umai

• He does not know us. - ah-uk sab-a-la - acc-1pl know-3sg-neg

Verbs

tense

Three tenses, two aspects, several moods...

• - | i | u
• r | sh
• ...

tense	infix	example	English
Simple Present Tense	-	ish-an	I drink
Present Perfect Tense	-ar	ish-ar-at	you have drank
Simple Past Tense	-iy	ish-iy-um	they drank
Immediate Past Tense	-il	ish-il-an	I just drank
Past Perfect Tense	-ir	ish-ir-an	I had drunk
Simple Future Tense	-uy	ish-uy-uk	we will drink
Future Possible Tense	-ush	ish-ush-a	he may drink
Future Perfect Tense	-ur	ish-ur-an	I will have drunk