The story
- Proto-Indo-European*éǵh₂
- Proto-Indo-European*e-
- Proto-Indo-European*eǵh₂óm
- Proto-Germanic*eka
- Proto-Germanic*ek
- Proto-West Germanic*ik
- Old Englishiċ
- Middle Englishik, ich, ī
- EnglishI
- Proto-Indo-European*h₁es-
- Proto-Indo-European*h₁ésmi
- Proto-Germanic*immi
- Proto-West Germanic*im
- Old Englisheom
- Middle Englisham
- Englisham
- EnglishI'm
- Englishgoing
- Proto-Indo-European*de
- Proto-Indo-European*doh₁
- Proto-Germanic*tō
- Proto-West Germanic*tō
- Old Englishtō
- Middle Englishto
- Englishto
- Englishgonna
- English todayImma
/ˈaɪm ɡənə/ → /ˈaɪmənə/ → /ˈaɪmnə/ → /ˈaɪmə/ Written form of a relaxed pronunciation of I'm gonna. Includes a reduction of /mn/ to /m/ (see reduction of /mb/ and /mn/ on Wikipedia). Common in and possibly originated in African-American Vernacular English, but is used more broadly today. According to m'Cheaux, it originated in Gullah, where "-a" replaces "-ing" and indicates immediate future tense.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.