UMLAUT

umlaut

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

Source: WordNet® 3.1

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Etymology

Noun

umlaut (plural umlauts or umlaute)

(linguistics) An assimilatory process whereby a vowel is pronounced more like a following vocoid that is separated by one or more consonants.

(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 lūsiz > Old English lȳs(i) > Modern English lice).

(linguistics) A vowel so assimilated.

(orthography) The diacritical mark ( ¨ ) placed over a vowel when it indicates a (rounded) front vowel

(informal, orthography) diaeresis

Usage notes

• Although this symbol has the same form as the diaeresis/dieresis, it has a different function and so in standard and technical usage these two terms are not interchangeable. The term for the diacritic mark, as opposed to its function, is trema.

• When spelling a German word out loud, one can say “(vowel) umlaut” or “umlauted (vowel)”. e.g. “o umlaut” or “umlauted o” (ö). (German practice is to say “o Umlaut”, or more commonly to pronounce the letters, so the name of "Ö" is [øː], just as "A" is [aː] and "B" is [beː].) Because <ä> and <e> are pronounced identically by most German-speakers, one would tend to say "a Umlaut" to avoid confusion.

• In alphabetic orders, "ä, ö, ü" are treated as "a, o, u" or "ae, oe, ue" in German (so the word lügen comes directly after or before the word lugen). In other languages, such as Swedish, the umlaut letters may have their own position in the alphabet.

• 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 mutation

Verb

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

(transitive) To place an umlaut over (a vowel).

(linguistics, transitive) To modify (a word) so that an umlaut is required in it.

Anagrams

• mutual

Source: Wiktionary

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Um"laut, n. Etym: [G., from um about + laut sound.] (Philol.)

Definition: The euphonic modification of a root vowel sound by the influence of a, u, or especially i, in the syllable which formerly followed.

Note: It is peculiar to the Teutonic languages, and was common in Anglo-Saxon. In German the umlauted vowels resulting from a, o, u, followed by old i, are written ä, ö, ü, or ae, oe, ue; as, männer or maenner, men, from mann, man. Examples of forms resulting from umlaut in English are geese pl. of goose, men pl. of man, etc.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition

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