Amal

See also:

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

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
• 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.

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

tense

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

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

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:

relative and interrogative pronouns

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