imala

Not valid in Scrabble

It's a recognised English word, but it isn't in the official NASPA Scrabble word list.

Scrabble points
7
Words With Friends
9
Letters
5
Pronunciation
/ɪˈmɑːlə/

Definition of imala

1 sense · 1 part of speech · etymology included

noun

  1. (uncountable, usually)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)

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

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/…

See full 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).

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