imala
English edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
From Arabic إمالة (ʔimāla, “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 most modern dialects, however, imala is a default development, only hindered by certain adjacent consonants (especially emphatics).
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
imala (plural imalas)
Serbo-Croatian edit
Participle edit
imala (Cyrillic spelling имала)