umlaut

umlaut [Ger.,=transformed sound], in inflection , 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 ablaut . 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 accent ).

umlaut (philol.) change in the sound of a vowel due to partial assimilation to an adjacent sound. XIX. — G., f. um- about + laut sound.

umlaut the process in Germanic languages by which the quality of a vowel was altered in certain phonetic contexts, resulting for example in the differences between modern German Mann and Männer or (after loss of the inflection) English man and men.