Amal
- See also:
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.
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 | -esh | betesh | 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.
| 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 |
