The term ʾimāla is used by the medieval Arab grammarians to denote the fronting and raising of Old Arabic ā toward ī, and the old short a toward i (Levin 1992:74, esp. n. 1). Although the term ʾimāla denotes the fronting and raising of both ā and a, the ancient Arabic sources almost completely ignore the ʾimāla of short a, and the term in these texts usually denotes the ʾimāla of long ā (Levin 1992:74). The few grammarians who mention the ʾimāla of short a deal with it only when it occurs in the proximity of r (Sībawayhi, Kitāb II, 293.6–294.5; Zamaxšarī, Mufaṣṣal 160.10–11; Ibn Yaʿīš, Šarḥ II, 1265…