Imāla

Imāla (also transliterated imālah; Arabic:إمالة‎, literally "slanting") is a vowel shift exhibited in many dialects of Arabic whose the open vowel, whether long or short, is raised to [ɛ] or even [e] in certain morphological or phonological contexts. Imāla occurs in modern colloquial as well as classical variants of Arabic, including several qirāʾāt ("styles of recitation") of the Quran. As a very noticeable phenomenon, imāla is often one of the most distinguishing features in the dialects that have it, such as Lebanese Arabic.