umlaut

um·laut

U0016700 (o͝om′lout′)n.1. a. A change in a vowel sound caused by partial assimilation especially to a vowel or semivowel occurring in the following syllable.b. A vowel sound changed in this manner. Also called vowel mutation.2. The diacritic mark (¨) placed over a vowel to indicate an umlaut, especially in German.tr.v. um·laut·ed, um·laut·ing, um·lauts 1. To modify by umlaut.2. To write or print (a vowel) with an umlaut.

[German : um-, around, alteration (from Middle High German umb-, from umbe, from Old High German umbi; see ambhi in Indo-European roots) + Laut, sound (from Middle High German lūt, from Old High German hlūt; see kleu- in Indo-European roots).]

umlaut

(ˈʊmlaʊt) n1. (Phonetics & Phonology) the mark (¨) placed over a vowel in some languages, such as German, indicating modification in the quality of the vowel. Compare diaeresis2. (Phonetics & Phonology) (esp in Germanic languages) the change of a vowel within a word brought about by the assimilating influence of a vowel or semivowel in a preceding or following syllable[C19: German, from um around (in the sense of changing places) + Laut sound]

um•laut

(ˈʊm laʊt)
n. 1. a mark (¨) used as a diacritic over a vowel, as ä, ö, ü, to indicate a vowel sound different from that of the letter without the diacritic, esp. as so used in German. Compare dieresis. 2. (in Germanic languages) assimilation in which a vowel is influenced by a following vowel or semivowel. v.t. 3. to modify by umlaut. 4. to write an umlaut over. [1835–45; < German]

umlaut

A punctuation mark (¨) used in German over a vowel to show that its pronunciation is modified.

Thesaurus

Noun

1.umlaut - a diacritical mark (two dots) placed over a vowel in German to indicate a change in sounddiaeresis, dieresisdiacritic, diacritical mark - a mark added to a letter to indicate a special pronunciation

Translations

umlautумляут

umlaut

(o͝om`lout) [Ger.,=transformed sound], in inflectioninflection,
in grammar. In many languages, words or parts of words are arranged in formally similar sets consisting of a root, or base, and various affixes. Thus walking, walks, walker have in common the root walk and the affixes -ing, -s, and -er.
..... Click the link for more information. , variation of vowels of the type of English man to men. In this instance it is the end product of the effect of a y (long since disappeared) that was present in the plural; the y caused the vowel before the n to be pronounced higher and more forward in the mouth in the plural than in the singular; eventually there was replacement of the vowel in the plural. Other examples are mouse, mice; tooth, teeth; to fall, to fell; doom, deem. Umlaut is also called mutation and inflection. For the variation of sing, sang, see ablautablaut
[Ger.,=off-sound], in inflection, vowel variation (as in English sing, sang, sung, song) caused by former differences in syllabic accent. In a prehistoric period the corresponding inflected forms of the language (known through internal reconstruction) had
..... Click the link for more information. . Umlaut is also the name for the diacritical symbol placed above a vowel to indicate a sound change in Germanic languages, as in the German Fräulein and the Swedish fröken (see accentaccent,
in speech, emphasis given a particular sound, called prosodic systems in linguistics. There are three basic accentual methods: stress, tone, and length. In English each word has at least one primary stressed syllable, as in weath`er;
..... Click the link for more information. ).

Umlaut

a phonetic change in the timbre of the vowels a, o, and u under the influence of the vowel i in the following syllable. In the Germanic languages, this change is influenced by certain other vowels in the following syllable as well. The term “umlaut” was introduced by J. Grimm.

The umlaut is a regressive assimilation of vowels. The conditioned variants occurring as a result of the umlaut may become independent phonemes, and their alternation (the grammatical umlaut) may become a morphological feature. For example, in modern German the umlaut is often a grammatical means for forming the plural of nouns, both when the environment determining the conditioned variant is absent and in many analogous forms, as in Gast-Gäste and Mutter-Mütter.

REFERENCE

Steblin-Kamenskii, M. I. “Chto takoe ‘umlaut’?” In Materialy pervoi nauchnoi sessii po voprosam germanskogo iazykoznaniia. Moscow, 1959. Pages 52–63.

umlaut

um·laut

umlaut

um•laut

umlaut

umlaut

umlaut

Umlaut

REFERENCE

umlaut

Synonyms for umlaut

noun a diacritical mark (two dots) placed over a vowel in German to indicate a change in sound

Synonyms

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