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Umlaut (literally "changed sound") is the German name of the sound shift phenomenon also known as i-mutation.In German, this term is also used for the corresponding letters ä, ö, and ü (and the diphthong äu) and the sounds that these letters represent.
In modern German, umlaut as a marker of the plural of nouns is a regular feature of the language, and although umlaut generally is no longer a productive force in German, new plurals of this type can be created by analogy. Likewise, umlaut marks the comparative of many adjectives and other kinds of inflected and derived forms.
In linguistics, umlaut (from German "sound alternation") is a sound change in which a vowel is pronounced more like a following vowel or semivowel. [1]The term umlaut was originally coined by Jacob Grimm in connection with the study of Germanic languages, as umlaut had occurred prominently in many of their linguistic histories (see Germanic umlaut). [2]
In German Kurrent writing, the superscripted e was simplified to two vertical dashes, which have degenerated to dots in both handwriting and German typesetting. Although the two dots look like those in the diaeresis (trema) diacritical marking, a distinction should be made between umlaut and diaresis because the two have different functions.
The phonology of Standard German is the standard pronunciation or accent of the German language. ... In umlaut forms, the difference usually reoccurs: Schäfer ...
German naming law accepts umlauts and/or ß in family names as a reason for an official name change. Even a spelling change, e.g. from Müller to Mueller or from Weiß to Weiss is regarded as a name change.
Ä in German Sign Language. A similar glyph, A with umlaut, appears in the German alphabet. It represents the umlauted form of a (when short), resulting in (or for many speakers) in the case of the long and in the case of the short . In German, it is called Ä (pronounced ) or Umlaut-Ä [citation needed].
I-mutation (also known as umlaut, front mutation, i-umlaut, i/j-mutation or i/j-umlaut) is a type of sound change in which a back vowel is fronted or a front vowel is raised if the following syllable contains /i/, /iː/ or /j/ (a voiced palatal approximant, sometimes called yod, the sound of English y in yes).