Amal
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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
- e - /i/ or /ɪ/ without confusion
- j - /ʒ/
- ny - /ɲ/ (rare)
- u - /w/ when followed by another vowel
- y - /j/
- ' - /ʔ/ the glottal stop separates non-diphthonged vowels.
- ai - /a͡ɪ/ (this is the only diphthong in Amal)
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
aspect
perfective
continuous
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.
| 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 |
