Amal

See also:

• lexicon
  • 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.

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

24 of the 26 Latin letters are used, leaving 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
• i - /i/ or /ɪ/ without confusion
• j - /ʒ/
• u - /w/ when followed by another vowel
• y - /j/
• ai - /a͡ɪ/ (this is the only diphthong in Amal)

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
• -e - 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.

icek
to drink

	Present	Past	Future
1sg	ican I drink	iciyan I drank	icuyan I will drink
2sg	ice you drink	iciye you drank	icuye you will drink
3sg	ica she/he/it drinks	iciya she/he/it drank	icuya she/he/it will drink
1pl	icuk we drink	iciyuk we drank	icuyuk we will drink
2pl	icut you (pl) drink	iciyut you (pl) drank	icuyut you (pl)will drink
3pl	icum they drink	iciyum they drank	icuyum they will drink

aspect

ramak
to see; look (at)

	Present Perfective	Past Continuous	Future Perfective
1sg	rayeban I have seen	rayijan I was seeing	rayuban I will have seen
2sg	ice you drink	iciye you drank	icuye you will drink
3sg	ica she/he/it drinks	iciya she/he/it drank	icuya she/he/it will drink
1pl	icuk we drink	iciyuk we drank	icuyuk we will drink
2pl	icut you (pl) drink	iciyut you (pl) drank	icuyut you (pl)will drink
3pl	icum they drink	iciyum they drank	icuyum they will drink

perfective

The perfective infix -eb-, -er- indicates that, in the time context of the sentence, the action is completed.

• iceba

drink-PFV-3sg

She has drunk.

The tense of -eb can be changed:

• ediban ilya

make-PST.PFV-1sg 3sg-OBL

I had made it.

• ucahuban ilya

study-FUT.PFV-1sg 3sg-OBL

I will have studied it.

continuous

The continuous infix -ej- indicates that, in the time context of the sentence, the action is occurring continuously.

• kecejan

breathe-CONT-1sg

I am breathing.

• namuje

sleep-FUT.CONT-2sg

You will be sleeping.

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":

• icesuk

drink-IRR-1pl

If we drink

The e 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-FUT.IRR-1sg sun shine-FUT.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 interrogative 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.

number

Plural nouns are formed by appending -m to nouns ending in vowels or -im to nouns ending in consonants. This does not alter the stress:

• bet > betim — house > houses
• ajba > ajbam — answer > answers

gender

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

• kavalú / kavalá

a stallion / a mare

case

Amal has separate endings for each of the five 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.

oblique

The oblique is formed by adding $$$ the end of the noun.

instrumental

The instrumental is formed by adding $$$ the end of the noun.

genitive

The genitive is formed by adding $$$ the end of the noun.

locative

The locative is formed by adding $$$ the end of the noun.

Other parts of speech

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. (ceket coat, and yacek to be wet)

• ceket yaca

coat be.wet-3sg

The wet coat or The coat is wet

adverbs

Adverbs can be formed from all verbs by adding -ji to the root. (If the verb already ends in j, just add -ad.) They are not inflected.

• guzek - be beautiful >> guzuji - beautifully
• tobek - be good >> tobji - well
• genyek - be rich >> genyeji - richly
• yavek - be slow >> yavaji - slowly
• fasek - be fluent >> fasaji - beautifully

personal 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".

Like nouns, pronouns are inflected by case, but are very irregular:

	nomative	genitive	accusative	dative	instrumental
1sg	na	nai	nun	eyan	anec
2sg	te	tai	tun	eyat	atec
3sg	il	ilai	ilun	eyil	ilec
1pl	nuk	ukai	ukun	eyuk	ukec
2pl	tum	utai	utun	eyut	utec
3pl	hum	umai	umun	eyum	umec

relative and interrogative pronouns

The demonstratives are fairly straightforward.

• bu - this
• su - that
• yu - that (over there)

The plural is prefixed:

• imbu - these
• imsu - those
• imyu - those (over there)

The interrogative a relative pronouns are the same:

• cika - q - how
• kam - q - how much/many
• ma - q - what
• imta - q - when
• narye - q - where
• mada - q - which
• man - q - who
• miyin - q - whose
• ce/ra - q - why

• hada - pro - everything
• hara - pro - everyone
• nul - pro - nothing