Amal

See also:

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

Introduction

Amal is meant to be a personal (or artistic) conlang and despite appearances and structure is not intended as an IAL. Amal is phonologically inspired by Semitic languages but incorporates aspects of numerous natural languages, including, but not limited to, Arabic, Basque, Egyptian, Hungarian, Japanese, Korean, Quechua, Spanish, and Turkish in an effort to be euphonious and easy to use/learn.

Amal is an agglutinative language. Its vocabulary consists of basic roots which can be extended into different parts of speech, their meaning changed or modified, with various suffixes. Most of the suffixes are optional, so that there is a choice of what sort of information to convey with a given word.

• shab - related to knowledge and awareness

shabrá - v - to know; to be aware (of)

shabedek - v - to teach; instruct (to cause to know)

áshab - n - knowledge; awareness

shabda - n - library; school

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

Writing

This adaptation of the Hebrew alphabet can be used to write Amal. This is subject to change. Note: The letters named in red appear rarely, if at all.

Nouns

Derivational morphology

• Noun → adjective: Suffix: -un
• Adjective → noun: Suffix: -iya
• Noun → verb: Suffix: -ek / -ra
• Verb → noun: Suffix: -a / a-
• Verb → adjective: Suffix: -u
• Adjective → adverb: Suffix: -ha / -ak
• One who X's (e.g. paint → painter): Suffix: -in
• Place where (e.g. wine → winery): Suffix: -da
• Diminutive: Suffix: -XX
• Augmentative: Suffix: -XX

Number

Amal nouns can be singular, dual, or plural.

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

• na- - collection of things
  • heta (tree) >> nahet (forest)
  • kupá (dog) >> nakupá (dog pack)

Mass nouns include liquids, powders, and substances, such as ura (water), ugum (sand), and heta (wood). They do not normally require determiners or the plural. However, one may add these to indicate specific examples or different types:

• buqura — this water (e.g. in the cup)
• ehetim — woods (e.g. various kinds)

Gender

Amal does not have grammatical gender. However, where desired, masculine individuals may be distinguished by the suffix -ul, and feminine ones by -en.

• dashin - "sibling",
  • dashul - "brother"
  • dashen "sister"

Case

The basic form of each noun, and the one cited in dictionaries, is the nominative singular. All the other forms can be derived from it. Most nouns are formed from a basic root with of several nominalizer affixes, or a basic -á. The accusative case (-wa / -ú) marks the direct object of a verb. When marked as accusative, nouns will often drop the nominalizer affix. The genitive case (-ai / -ya) is used to show possession and is placed immediately after the first member of a genitive construction. The dative (bi-) 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-. The locative case (-da) indicates the place or time at which something happens. Its meaning can be translated by the English prepositions 'to', 'at', 'on', 'in' etc. The ablative case (-sha) 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". The instrumental/comitative case (-ha / -ak) 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.

man - amul	singular	dual	plural
nominative	amul man	mulik the (two) men	mulim the men
accusative	mulwa man	mulikwa (two) men	mulimwa men
genitive	mulya man's	mulikai (two) men's	mulimya men's
dative	bimul to [a/the] man	bimulik to [the] (two) men	bimulim to [the] men
locative	muleda in/at/by [the/a] man	mulikeda in/at/by [the] (two) men	mulimda in/at/by [the] men
ablative	mulesha from/off of [the/a] man	muliksha from/off of [the] (two) men	mulimsha from/off of [the] men
comitative	mulha with/by/through/using [the/a] man	mulikha with/by/through/using [the] (two) men	mulimak with/by/through/using [the] men

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 [ana]	-uk [nuk]
2	-ti / -e [ti]	-ut / -í [tum]
3	-u / -a / -il [il]	-um [hum]

case

	nominative	accusative	genitive	dative	locative	ablative	comitative
1s	-an	eyan	nai	iban	anda	ansha	anak
2s	-ti / -e	eti / eye	tai	ibti	tida	tisha	akti
3s	-u / -a / -il	eya	ai	ibu	uda	usha	ilak
1p	-uk	eyuk	kai	ibuk	ukeda	uksha	ukha
2p	-ut / -í	eyut	wai	ibut	uteda	utesha	utak
3p	-um	eyum	mai	imbu *	umda	umsha	umak

• 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 kawalu aryeshanu (I saw (it) the horse), kawalu aryeshan is grammatical.

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

pronominal suffixes

These are suffixes that cannot stand alone but are attached to the end of a verb, used to identify subject and object.

S/O	none	me	you	him/her/it	us	you (pl)	them
I	-an	-	-anti	-anu / -ana	-anuk *	-anut	-anum
you	-ti / -e	-eyan	-	-eya	-eyuk	-eyut *	-eyum
he/she/it	-u / -a / -il	-ilan	-ile / -uti	-ilu / -ila	-iluk	-ilut	-ilum
we	-uk	-	-ukti	-uku / -uka	-	-ukut	-ukum
you (pl)	-ut / -í	-utan	-	-uta	-utuk	-	-utum
they	-um	-uman	-umti	-umu	-umuk	-umut	-

Prepositions

Amal lacks a morphological preposition. To express locative concepts in Amal one mostly make use of one of the following case suffixes:

• -da - locative (in, at, on)
• -sha - ablative (from, away from)

• kayan betéda nai

/kajan betɛːda na͡ɪ/

COP-1s house-LOC 1s.GEN

I'm in my house. / I'm at home.

• mashum betésha mai

/maʃum betɛːʃa ma͡ɪ/

walk-3pl house-ABL 3pl.GEN

They're going away from their home.

Amal uses nouns to express more complex spatial relationships (these words are adverbs in English) this means that for example the word tumda should be interpreted as something like the everwhere place or all places. And a phase like tumda aryanti (meaning I see you everywhere) is literally I see you in all places. Likewise aryanti uyushda nai (meaning I see you to my left) is literally I see you in my left area.

Adjectives

Amal does not have adjectives as a distinct part of speech. Instead, many intransitive verbs can be used as adjectives, in which case they follow the noun they modify.

• dishkata yasha

/dɪʃkata jaʃa/

coat be.wet-3s

The coat is wet. [The wet coat.]

• pila kita

/pila kita/

elephant be.old-3s

The elephant is old. [The old elephant.]

Numbers

Cardinal

Amal	number	English	Amal	number	English	Amal	number	English
nul	0	zero	sha	6	six	kishada	500	five hundred
wa	1	one	seb	7	seven	hesha	103	(one) thousand
ni	2	two	eta (sometimes pu)	8	eight	dahesh	104	ten thousand
ush	3	three	nen	9	nine	sadesh	105	(one) hundred thousand
ha	4	four	da	10	ten	uhun	106	(one) million
kish	5	five	sada	100	(one) hundred	ulun	109	(one) billion

Forming Larger Numbers

• dawa - eleven / 11
• nida - twenty / 20
• sadaseb - one hundred seven / 107
• ushadénidasha - three hundred twenty six / 326
• shaheshnidaha - six thousand and twenty four / 6024

Other Number Forms

Amal	number	English	ordinal	multiple	fractional
wa	1	one	émwa first	gáwa once	-
dani	12	twelve	émdani twelfth	gádani twelve times	daniya a twelfth
kishdaha	54	fifty four	émkishdaha fifty fourth	gákishdaha 54 times	kishdahaya a fifty fourth
sadasha	106	one hundred (and) six	émsadasha 106th	gásadasha 106 times	sadashaya a 106th
sebhesh	7000	seven thousand	émsebhesh seven thousandth	gásebhesh 7000 times	sebheshai 1/7000

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).

Syntax

Conlang