Amal
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Introduction
Amal is meant to be a personal (or artistic) conlang and despite appearances and structure is not intended as an IAL. Amal is phonologically inspired by Semitic languages but incorporates aspects of numerous natural languages, including, but not limited to, Arabic, Basque, Egyptian, Hungarian, Japanese, Korean, Quechua, Spanish, and Turkish in an effort to be euphonious and easy to use/learn.
Amal is an agglutinative language. Its vocabulary consists of basic roots which can be extended into different parts of speech, their meaning changed or modified, with various suffixes. Most of the suffixes are optional, so that there is a choice of what sort of information to convey with a given word.
- shab - related to knowledge and awareness
- shabrá - v - to know; to be aware (of)
- shabedek - v - to teach; instruct (to cause to know)
- áshab - n - knowledge; awareness
- shabda - n - library; school
Phonology
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labiovelar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosives | p b | t d | k g | ʔ (q) | ||
| Nasals | m | n | ||||
| Fricatives | s | ʃ (sh) | ||||
| Approximants | l | j (y) | w | h | ||
| Trill | r |
Note: The glottal stop /ʔ/ q, is used as a "buffer" to keep vowels apart when adding suffixes.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i~ɪ | u~ʊ | |
| Mid | e~ɛ | o | |
| Open | a~ə |
Vowel length is productive and is marked by an acute accent. á é í ú
- ai - /a͡ɪ/ (this is the only diphthong in Amal)
- o - /o/ is extremely rare and is mostly used in proper names
Writing
This adaptation of the Hebrew alphabet can be used to write Amal. This is subject to change. Note: The letters named in red appear rarely, if at all.
Nouns
Derivational morphology
- Noun → adjective: Suffix: -un
- Adjective → noun: Suffix: -iya
- Noun → verb: Suffix: -ek / -ra
- Verb → noun: Suffix: -a / a-
- Verb → adjective: Suffix: -u
- Adjective → adverb: Suffix: -ha / -ak
- One who X's (e.g. paint → painter): Suffix: -in
- Place where (e.g. wine → winery): Suffix: -da
- Diminutive: Suffix: -XX
- Augmentative: Suffix: -XX
Number
Amal nouns can be singular, dual, or plural.
- kup-á - dog
- kup-ik - (two) dogs
- kup-im - dogs
- kup-ik - (two) dogs
- na- - collection of things
- heta (tree) >> nahet (forest)
- kupá (dog) >> nakupá (dog pack)
Mass nouns include liquids, powders, and substances, such as ura (water), ugum (sand), and heta (wood). They do not normally require determiners or the plural. However, one may add these to indicate specific examples or different types:
- buqura — this water (e.g. in the cup)
- ehetim — woods (e.g. various kinds)
Gender
Amal does not have grammatical gender. However, where desired, masculine individuals may be distinguished by the suffix -ul, and feminine ones by -en. For example, dashá or dashin is "sibling", dashul "brother", and dashen "sister". However, gender is not generally used unless there is some reason for distinguishing it.
Case
The nominative case is the basic uninflected form of the noun.
The accusative case marks the direct object of a verb.
- -wa / -ú
The genitive case is used to show possession and is placed immediately after the first member of a genitive construction.
- -ai / -ya
The dative for the beneficiary of an action, indirect object, or motion towards. Unlike other case endings, it has morphed to being a prefix and has only one form, used in all instances. The exception to this is the form used with pronouns, ib-.
- bi-
The locative case indicates the place or time at which something happens. Its meaning can be translated by the English prepositions 'to', 'at', 'on', 'in' etc.
- -da
The ablative case carries the meaning "from, off of" and shows separation away from an object. It is also used in comparisons and in this case translates as "than".
- -sha
The instrumental/comitative case denotes accompaniment. It is translated as "with", "together with", "by", "with" or "through". An important use of the instrumental is as an adverbial, since Amal lacks a morphological adverb.
- -ha / -ak
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".
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | -an [ana] | -uk [nuk] |
| 2 | -ti / -e [ti] | -ut / -í [tum] |
| 3 | -u / -a / -il [il] | -um [hum] |
case
| nominative | accusative | genitive | dative | locative | ablative | comitative | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1s | -an | eyan | nai | iban | anda | ansha | anak |
| 2s | -ti / -e | eti / eye | tai | ibti | tida | tisha | akti |
| 3s | -u / -a / -il | eya | ai | ibu | uda | usha | ilak |
| 1p | -uk | eyuk | kai | ibuk | ukeda | uksha | ukha |
| 2p | -ut / -í | eyut | wai | ibut | uteda | utesha | utak |
| 3p | -um | eyum | mai | imbu * | umda | umsha | umak |
- imbu is a result of metathesis, a not uncommon occurrence in Amal.
direct object incorporation
Direct object pronouns are incorporated to the verb inflection. So, instead of eya aryeshan (I saw her), aryeshana is grammatical. The DO pronouns are not used when the object is specified. So, instead of kawalu aryeshanu (I saw (it) the horse), kawalu aryeshan is grammatical.
| verb | tense / aspect / mood | subject | object |
|---|---|---|---|
| ary | -esh | -an | -a |
| see | simple past | 1sg | 3sg.FEM |
| I saw her. | |||
pronominal suffixes
These are suffixes that cannot stand alone but are attached to the end of a verb, used to identify subject and object.
| S/O | none | me | you | him/her/it | us | you (pl) | them |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I | -an | - | -anti | -anu / -ana | -anuk * | -anut | -anum |
| you | -ti / -e | -eyan | - | -eya | -eyuk | -eyut * | -eyum |
| he/she/it | -u / -a / -il | -ilan | -ile / -uti | -ilu / -ila | -iluk | -ilut | -ilum |
| we | -uk | - | -ukti | -uku / -uka | - | -ukut | -ukum |
| you (pl) | -ut / -í | -utan | - | -uta | -utuk | - | -utum |
| they | -um | -uman | -umti | -umu | -umuk | -umut | - |
Prepositions
Amal lacks a morphological preposition. To express locative concepts in Amal one mostly make use of one of the following case suffixes:
- -da - locative (in, at, on)
- -sha - ablative (from, away from)
- kayan betéda nai
- /kajan betɛːda na͡ɪ/
- COP-1s house-LOC 1s.GEN
- I'm in my house. / I'm at home.
- mashum betésha mai
- /maʃum betɛːʃa ma͡ɪ/
- walk-3pl house-ABL 3pl.GEN
- They're going away from their home.
Amal uses nouns to express more complex spatial relationships (these words are adverbs in English) this means that for example the word tumda should be interpreted as something like the everwhere place or all places. And a phase like tumda aryanti (meaning I see you everywhere) is literally I see you in all places. Likewise aryanti uyushda nai (meaning I see you to my left) is literally I see you in my left area.
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.
- dishkata yasha
- /dɪʃkata jaʃa/
- coat be.wet-3s
- The coat is wet. [The wet coat.]
- pila kita
- /pila kita/
- elephant be.old-3s
- The elephant is old. [The old elephant.]
Numbers
Cardinal
| Amal | number | English | Amal | number | English | Amal | number | English |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| nul | 0 | zero | sha | 6 | six | kishada | 500 | five hundred |
| wa | 1 | one | seb | 7 | seven | hesha | 103 | (one) thousand |
| ni | 2 | two | eta (sometimes pu) |
8 | eight | dahesh | 104 | ten thousand |
| ush | 3 | three | nen | 9 | nine | sadesh | 105 | (one) hundred thousand |
| ha | 4 | four | da | 10 | ten | uhun | 106 | (one) million |
| kish | 5 | five | sada | 100 | (one) hundred | ulun | 109 | (one) billion |
Forming Larger Numbers
- dawa - eleven / 11
- nida - twenty / 20
- sadaseb - one hundred seven / 107
- ushadénidasha - three hundred twenty six / 326
- shaheshnidaha - six thousand and twenty four / 6024
Other Number Forms
| Amal | number | English | ordinal | multiple | fractional |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| wa | 1 | one | émwa first |
gáwa once |
- |
| dani | 12 | twelve | émdani twelfth |
gádani twelve times |
daniya a twelfth |
| kishdaha | 54 | fifty four | émkishdaha fifty fourth |
gákishdaha 54 times |
kishdahaya a fifty fourth |
| sadasha | 106 | one hundred (and) six | émsadasha 106th |
gásadasha 106 times |
sadashaya a 106th |
| sebhesh | 7000 | seven thousand | émsebhesh seven thousandth |
gásebhesh 7000 times |
sebheshai 1/7000 |
Questions
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).
