imala

English

Alternative forms

  • imaala, imalah, imaalah

Etymology

From Arabic إمالة (ʔimāla, literally “inclination”). The earliest form of the process, described by the Arab grammarians, was conditioned on the existence of an /i/ before or after the /a/ (somewhat similarly to Germanic umlaut). Hence the /a/ was said to “incline” towards the /i/. In many modern dialects, however, imala is only conditioned by surrounding consonants, and it is typically hindered by certain adjacent consonants (especially emphatics).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɪˈmɑːlə/, enPR: ĭ-mä'lə
  • Rhymes: -ɑːlə

Noun

imala (usually uncountable, plural imalas)

  1. (phonetics) a sound change in Arabic by which the vowels /a/, /aː/ are fronted in certain phonetic environments (possibly creating new phonemes, notably in Maltese and to a lesser degree in some dialects)

Serbo-Croatian

Participle

imala (Cyrillic spelling имала)

  1. inflection of imati:
    1. feminine singular active past participle
    2. neuter plural active past participle
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