English
imala
Imala comes from Arabic أَمَالَ ‘to incline’.
- Arabicc. 500–presentأَمَالَʔamāla‘to incline’
- Arabic, derivedc. 500–presentإمالةliterally ‘inclination’
- Englishtodayimala
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Arabicc. 500–presentأَمَالَʔamāla‘to incline’
- Arabic, derivedc. 500–presentإمالةliterally ‘inclination’
- Englishtodayimala
The story
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).
Every English word from Arabic أَمَالَ
Today it means
noun 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)
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Arabic أَمَالَ / imala