There is a famous song called Baby I'm-a Want You.
The name sounds wrong. Why is it not "Baby I want you"? Auxiliary verb "am" and article "a" look excessive in this phrase.
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1Hello, Mia. Song lyrics are often off-topic on ELU as they depart so significantly from standard usages (to fit with the music, usually). I'm afraid this is the case here. (Later in the song, 'Maybe I'm-a crazy' sounds like a mangling by Chico Marx in his Italianate parody. But 'Lately, I'm-a prayin' does make use of the archaic 'a-Ving', as in 'a-wassailing', covered on ELU at What is the grammatical basis for using "a" before a present participle (-ing)? etc). – Edwin Ashworth Aug 02 '23 at 10:52
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It represents the conversational pronunciation of
I am going to want you.
OXfordL says about I'ma (also spelt Ima)
contraction INFORMAL •US
verb: Ima
I'm going to.
- I guess I'ma just wing it.
Thought.co explains:
Wanna and gonna are examples of reductions. Reductions are short, commonly used phrases that are spoken quickly.
You can say the same about I'm a want you. am going to is reduced to 'm a. Wiktionary defines Imma as
Written form of a relaxed pronunciation of I'm gonna.
and gives a list of alternatives:
I'mma, imma, I'ma, i'ma, Ima, ima, Ima', I'm a, I'm a', i'm a', I'm'a, i'm'a, I'm-a.
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You might change "the" to "a". Oxford's INFORMAL-US is something like saying INFORMAL-UK if the pronunciation were limited to areas of Scotland. – TimR Aug 02 '23 at 10:09
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2This pronunciation is hardly comparable to "gonna", which extends across virtually all social, economic, age-group, and educational strata. – TimR Aug 02 '23 at 10:18
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Urban Dictionary gives this definition to imma https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=imma – DJohnson Aug 02 '23 at 10:39