umlaut

See also Umlaut

English

WOTD – 12 November 2008    

Wikipedia Wikipedia

Two umlaut diacritics used on the same page of an old book: two dots above the first a, a small e above the second one. Umlaut was originally represented by a following e, then an e above: e resembled two slanted, mostly vertical lines in German handwriting, hence the simplification to two lines (resembling ʺ ) and finally to two dots.

Development of the umlaut in German handwriting.

Etymology

From German Umlaut, from um (“around”) + Laut (“sound”), from Old High German hlut.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ˈʊm.laʊt/, /ˈʌm.laʊt/, X-SAMPA: /"Um.laUt/, /"Vm.laUt/
• (US) IPA: /ˈʊm.laʊt/, /ˈum.laʊt/, X-SAMPA: /"Um.laUt/, /"um.laUt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

umlaut (plural umlauts or (rare) umlaute)

1. (linguistics) An assimilatory process whereby a vowel is pronounced more like a following vocoid that is separated by one or more consonants.
2. (linguistics) The umlaut process (as above) that occurred historically in Germanic languages whereby back vowels became front vowels when followed by syllable containing a front vocoid (e.g. Germanic lūsi > Old English līs(i) > Modern English lice).
3. (linguistics) A vowel so assimilated.
4. (orthography) The diacritical mark ( ¨ ) placed over a vowel, usually when it indicates such assimilation.

Usage notes

• Although this symbol has the same form as the diaeresis/dieresis, it has as a different function and so in standard and technical usage these two terms are not interchangeable.
• When spelling a German word out loud, one can say “(vowel) umlaut” or “umlauted (vowel)”. e.g. “oh umlaut” or “umlauted oh” mean “an ‘o’ with an umlaut over it” (ö). (German practice is to pronounce the letters, so the name of "Ä" is [ɛː], just as "A" is [aː] and "B" is [beː].)
• The usual English plural is umlauts, but the form umlaute (after the German) has seen some use. It is quite rare, however.

Synonyms

• (orthography): trema
• (linguistics): vowel harmony

Derived terms

• heavy metal umlaut

Translations

partial assimilation of a vowel

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 元音變音 (cmn), 元音变音 (cmn) (yuányīn biànyīn)

• Czech: přehláska (cs) f
• Dutch: umlaut (nl) m
• Finnish: vokaalinmukaus (fi), umlaut (fi) (in German and closely related languages)

• German: Umlaut (de) m
• Greek: μεταφωνία (el) (metafonía) f
• Japanese: ウムラウト (ja) (umurauto)
• Russian: умлаут (ru) (umláut) m, умляут (ru) (umljáut)
• Spanish: metafonía (es) f

vowel so assimilated

• Czech: přehláska (cs) f

• German: umgelauteter Vokal (de) m

diacritical mark

• Bulgarian: умлаут (bg) (umláut) m
• Danish: omlyd (da)
• Dutch: umlaut (nl) m
• Esperanto: umlaŭto (eo), surdupunkto (eo)
• Finnish: treema (fi)
• French: tréma (fr)
• German: Umlaut (de) m
• Greek: διαλυτικά μεταφωνίας (el) (dialytiká metafonías) n pl
• Hebrew: אומלאוט (he)

• Hungarian: tréma (hu), umlaut (hu)
• Japanese: ウムラウト (ja) (umurauto)
• Korean: 움라우트 (ko) (umlauteu)
• Norwegian: omlyd (no)
• Russian: умлаут (ru) (umláut) m, умляут (ru) (umljáut)
• Slovak: dve bodky (sk) f
• Swedish: omljud (sv)
• Volapük: vokät (vo)

Verb

umlaut (third-person singular simple present umlauts, present participle umlauting, simple past and past participle umlauted)

1. To place an umlaut over a vowel.

See also

• diaeresis, dieresis

Anagrams

• mutual

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Finnish

Etymology

From German Umlaut

Noun

umlaut

1. umlaut (assimilation a->ä, o->ö or u->ü in German and some closely related languages)

Declension

Declension of umlaut (type risti) singular plural nominative umlaut umlautit genitive umlautin umlautien partitive umlautia umlauteja accusative umlaut umlautin umlautit inessive umlautissa umlauteissa elative umlautista umlauteista illative umlautiin umlauteihin adessive umlautilla umlauteilla ablative umlautilta umlauteilta allative umlautille umlauteille essive umlautina umlauteina translative umlautiksi umlauteiksi instructive – umlautein abessive umlautitta umlauteitta comitative – umlauteineen

Hypernyms

• vokaalinmukaus