Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Umlaut (/ ˈ ʊ m l aʊ t /) is a name for the two dots diacritical mark ( ̈) as used to indicate in writing (as part of the letters ä , ö , and ü ) the result of the historical sound shift due to which former back vowels are now pronounced as front vowels (for example , , and as , , and ).
The vowels of proto-Germanic and their general direction of change when i-mutated in the later Germanic dialects. Germanic umlaut is a specific historical example of this process that took place in the unattested earliest stages of Old English and Old Norse and apparently later in Old High German, and some other old Germanic languages.
"umlaut In German placenames, ae, oe and ue should almost always be rendered ä, ö, ü. Family names, however, for the most part became petrified many years ago and there is no way of working out whether the e form or the umlaut should be used; you just have to find out for each individual" (ISBN 1843549913, 2004-07-14)
German has four special letters; three are vowels accented with an umlaut sign ( ä, ö, ü ) and one is derived from a ligature of ſ and z ( ß ; called Eszett "ess-zed/zee" or scharfes S "sharp s"). They have their own names separate from the letters they are based on.
The letter q in German only ever appears in the sequence qu (/kv/), with the exception of loanwords, e.g., Coq au vin or Qigong (which is also written Chigong). The letter x (Ix, /ɪks/) occurs almost exclusively in loanwords. Native German words that are now pronounced with a /ks/ sound are usually written using chs or cks, as with Fuchs (fox).
Use umlauts over ä, ö and ü rather than using the respective diphthongs ae, oe and ue. Remember that, in German, all nouns have initial caps (e.g. ein Haus, das Sein) and they should retain these when italicized. French: Upper-case letters carry accents, e.g. RÉSUMÉ. The exception is the preposition à, e.g. A la porte." [20]
Some sources distinguish "diacritical marks" (marks upon standard letters in the A–Z 26-letter alphabet) from "special characters" (letters not marked but radically modified from the standard 26-letter alphabet) such as Old English and Icelandic eth (Ð, ð) and thorn (uppercase Þ, lowercase þ), and ligatures such as Latin and Anglo-Saxon Æ (minuscule: æ), and German eszett (ß; final ...
Download as PDF; Printable version; From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Redirect page. Redirect to: Germanic umlaut; Retrieved from " ...