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)
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(l) - 3sg - he / she
- -uk - 1pl - we
- -ut - 2pl - you
- -um - 3pl - they
pronominal constructions
If both subject and object are personal pronouns, both can be marked on the verb. In these constructions, case is dropped and order becomes relevant. The basic word order of SOV assumes that the first pronoun in the string is nominative while the subsequent pronoun is accusative.
- sav-an-at
- know-1sg-2sg
- I know you.
- ban-iy-an-a
- build-PST-1sg-3sg
- I built it.
- am-uj-al-um
- love-FUT.CONT-3sg-3pl
- She will (be) love(ing) them
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
The perfective infix -r- indicates that, in the time context of the sentence, the action is completed.
- ugara
- occur-PFV-3sg
- It has occurred.
continuous
The continuous infix -j- indicates that, in the time context of the sentence, the action is occurring continuously.
- kecajan
- breathe-CONT-1sg
- I am breathing.
- namujat
- 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":
- 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-FUT.IRR-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 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 -uj (male) or -en (female):
- kavaluj / kavalen
- 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.
- kavalimun 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 vaua
- house-DAT go-fut-3sg
- He will go to the house.
- eyemun kavalye 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.
- kelemec ketiyum
- pen-INS write-PST-3pl
- They wrote with a pen.
- kavalec vayan
- horse-INS go-1sg
- I go by horse.
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 -i.) They are not inflected.
- guzek - be beautiful >> guzoji - beautifully
- tobek - be good >> tobji - well
- genyek - be rich >> genyoji - richly
- yavasek - be slow >> yavasoji - slowly
- fasimak - be fluent >> fasiji - beautifully
