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Part of
Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics XXXII: Papers selected from the Annual Symposium on Arabic Linguistics, Tempe, Arizona, 2018
Edited by Elly van Gelderen
[Studies in Arabic Linguistics 9] 2020
► pp. 35–54

What triggers 'imāla

Focus on a Palestinian variety with phonological analysis

| Indiana University
| Indiana University

'imāla is a term used to describe the raising of the low vowel /a/ to [e] or [i], a feature of several Arabic dialects, including Levantine varieties where conditional raising occurs. This paper discusses various issues related to final 'imāla focusing on a Palestinian dialect. Final 'imāla typically affects the feminine marker suffix /-a/ in nouns and adjectives (the equivalent of tā marbūtˤa in Standard Arabic). Some of the issues to be discussed concern consonants that block 'imāla and their phonological features, the exceptional classes of colors and mental/physical challenges, and the lack of 'imāla to loanwords. One important observation is that short nouns whose consonantal roots start with a /w/, such as [sʕif-a] ‘characteristic’ and [hib-a] ‘gift’, systematically fail to undergo 'imāla. Phonological analyses will be given.

Keywords: 'imāla, raising, feature geometry, feminine suffix, morphosemantic class, loanwords, Palestinian Arabic
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Exemplification of 'imāla in PA-TA
  • 3.Feature geometric representation and the blocking of 'imāla
  • 4.The historic uvular /q/ and the back velar problem
  • 5.The semantic class of colors and mental/physical challenges
    • 5.1Morpho-semantic class
    • 5.2A morphophonological analysis
  • 6.Other exceptional word groups
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 28 August 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sal.9.02abo
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