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
- j - /ʒ/
- ny - /ɲ/ (rare)
- u - /w/ when followed by another vowel
- y - /j/
- ' - /ʔ/ the glottal stop separates non-diphthonged vowels.
buffer letters
Amal makes use of two buffer letters -y- and -o- mainly to keep vowels apart when adding suffixes, or consonants apart that form bulky clusters.
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)-.
| halek to walk |
savek to know |
tenek to have | |
| 1sg | haliyan | saviyan | teniyan |
| 2sg | haliyat | saviyat | teniyat |
| 3sg | haliya | saviya | teniya |
| 1pl | haliyuk | saviyuk | teniyuk |
| 2pl | haliyut | saviyut | teniyut |
| 3pl | haliyum | saviyum | teniyum |
future tense
The future is formed by adding the personal endings to the verb root and the infix -u(y)-.
| halek to walk |
savek to know |
tenek to have | |
| 1sg | haluyan | savuyan | tenuyan |
| 2sg | haluyat | savuyat | tenuyat |
| 3sg | haluya | savuya | tenuya |
| 1pl | haluyuk | savuyuk | tenuyuk |
| 2pl | haluyut | savuyut | tenuyut |
| 3pl | haluyum | savuyum | tenuyum |
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 |
