Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

imala

/ɪˈmɑːlə/

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English

Syllables: imala
IPA: /ɪˈmɑːlə/

7

Scrabble Score

5

Letters

1

Syllables

4

Unique Chars

Meaning

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)

Uncountable

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).

Origin

Source language: Arabic

Word Breakdown

Root: م ي ل, إمالة

Usage

Uncountable

Inflected Forms

imalas (plural) imaala (alternative) imalah (alternative) imaalah (alternative)

Rhymes With

gala impala koala kamala valhalla masala uppsala pala sinhala tala tikka masala challah

Questions

How do you pronounce imala?: The recorded pronunciation is /ɪˈmɑːlə/.
What does imala mean?: 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)
Where does imala come from?: It is traced to Arabic.

How to pronounce imala

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “imala”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/ɪˈmɑːlə/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “imala”.
Repeat and practice — Say “imala” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.