Mesopotamian ʾImālah in light of Quranic Reading Traditions

Abstract

The Mesopotamian Qəltu dialects are well-known for their extensive use of ʾimālah. This paper reexamines the historical development of this ʾimālah and identifies three independent processes. One of these processes clearly continues the phonemic distinction between two early Arabic phonemes *ē and *ā which have merged to ā in Modern Standard Arabic. It is shown that this phonemic distinction was present in several Quranic reading traditions from Kufa. It is shown that specifically the reading tradition of al-Kisāʾī (d. 189/804) show clear traces of all three ʾimālah processes now found in the Mesopotamian Qəltu dialects, and thus serves as one of our earliest witnesses of these processes.