umlaut

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See also: Umlaut and ümlaut

English

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WOTD – 12 November 2008

Etymology

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The logo of Matthäi, a large construction company in northern Germany. The second a has an umlaut (sense 4) over it.
Two umlaut diacritics (sense 4) over the as in two words.
Development of the umlaut (sense 4) in German handwriting.

Borrowed from German Umlaut in the 19th century, from um- or um (“around, re-, trans-”) + Laut (“sound”), from Old High German hlūt. More at loud.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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umlaut (plural umlauts or umlaute)

  1. (linguistics) An assimilatory process whereby a vowel is pronounced more like a following vocoid that is separated by one or more consonants.
    • 1997, Matthew Piepenburg, Time and the Maiden, →ISBN, page 62:
      In fits of concealed despair that went unnoticed even by those close enough to touch, Julien cursed the language of umlauts, eszetts, and gerunds.
    • 2008, Roy Blount, Alphabet juice: the energies, gists, and spirits of letters:
      A tittle is more or less the same thing (the dot over an i, for instance), except that it can be traced back to Medieval Latin for a little mark over or under a letter, such as an accent ague or a cedilla. I don't know whether an umlaut is one or two tittles. Maybe it's a jot and a tittle side by side.
  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 lūsiz > Old English lȳs(i) > Modern English lice).
  3. (linguistics) A vowel so assimilated.
  5. (orthography) The diacritical mark ( ¨ ) placed over a vowel when it indicates a (rounded) front vowel
  7. (informal, orthography) Synonym of diaeresis
    "Naïve" takes an umlaut because it is pronounced as two syllables.

Usage notes

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  • Although this symbol has the same form as the diaeresis, 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].) In the North of Germany, "ä" and "e" are pronounced identically; therefore, 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

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Derived terms

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Translations

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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Verb

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

  1. (transitive) To place an umlaut over (a vowel).
    • 1989, Elizabeth A. Edwards, “A Computer Column for All Seasons”, in Margaret S. Boone, editor, Practicing Anthropology, volume 11, number 2:
      We kept some of the foreign alphabet symbols such as the accented and umlauted vowels and Greek letters and used the rest of the space for more esoteric linguistic symbols such as "barred-l," and "engma."
  2. (linguistics, transitive) To modify (a word) so that an umlaut is required in it.
    an umlauting vowel
    • 1980, Frederick B. Agard, The Genealogy of the French Language, published in Contributions to historical linguistics, →ISBN, page 222:
      These, together with (some) Romansh lects, belong to our West Rhaetian; the /ȫ/ also supported by two lects from the Ticino which by our criteria are NWIt, and by the partially umlauting lects of Lombardy which together with (some) Engadine lects belong to our East Rhaetian.

See also

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Further reading

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Anagrams

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Dutch

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Etymology

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From German Umlaut.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈum.lɑu̯t/
  • Audio:(file)
  • Hyphenation: um‧laut

Noun

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umlaut m (plural umlauten)

  1. (Germanic grammar) umlaut

Derived terms

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Finnish

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Etymology

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From German Umlaut.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈumlɑut/, [ˈumlɑ̝ut̪]
  • Rhymes: -umlɑut
  • Hyphenation(key): um‧la‧ut

Noun

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umlaut

  1. umlaut (the diacritical mark ( ¨ ) placed over various vowels: a > ä, o > ö or u > ü in German and some closely related languages)

Declension

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Inflection of umlaut (Kotus type 5/risti, no gradation)
nominative umlaut umlautit
genitive umlautin umlautien
partitive umlautia umlauteja
illative umlautiin umlauteihin
singular plural
nominative umlaut umlautit
accusative nom. umlaut umlautit
gen. umlautin
genitive umlautin umlautien
partitive umlautia umlauteja
inessive umlautissa umlauteissa
elative umlautista umlauteista
illative umlautiin umlauteihin
adessive umlautilla umlauteilla
ablative umlautilta umlauteilta
allative umlautille umlauteille
essive umlautina umlauteina
translative umlautiksi umlauteiksi
abessive umlautitta umlauteitta
instructive — umlautein
comitative See the possessive forms below.
Possessive forms of umlaut (Kotus type 5/risti, no gradation)
first-person singular possessor
singular plural
nominative umlautini umlautini
accusative nom. umlautini umlautini
gen. umlautini
genitive umlautini umlautieni
partitive umlautiani umlautejani
inessive umlautissani umlauteissani
elative umlautistani umlauteistani
illative umlautiini umlauteihini
adessive umlautillani umlauteillani
ablative umlautiltani umlauteiltani
allative umlautilleni umlauteilleni
essive umlautinani umlauteinani
translative umlautikseni umlauteikseni
abessive umlautittani umlauteittani
instructive — —
comitative — umlauteineni
second-person singular possessor
singular plural
nominative umlautisi umlautisi
accusative nom. umlautisi umlautisi
gen. umlautisi
genitive umlautisi umlautiesi
partitive umlautiasi umlautejasi
inessive umlautissasi umlauteissasi
elative umlautistasi umlauteistasi
illative umlautiisi umlauteihisi
adessive umlautillasi umlauteillasi
ablative umlautiltasi umlauteiltasi
allative umlautillesi umlauteillesi
essive umlautinasi umlauteinasi
translative umlautiksesi umlauteiksesi
abessive umlautittasi umlauteittasi
instructive — —
comitative — umlauteinesi
first-person plural possessor
singular plural
nominative umlautimme umlautimme
accusative nom. umlautimme umlautimme
gen. umlautimme
genitive umlautimme umlautiemme
partitive umlautiamme umlautejamme
inessive umlautissamme umlauteissamme
elative umlautistamme umlauteistamme
illative umlautiimme umlauteihimme
adessive umlautillamme umlauteillamme
ablative umlautiltamme umlauteiltamme
allative umlautillemme umlauteillemme
essive umlautinamme umlauteinamme
translative umlautiksemme umlauteiksemme
abessive umlautittamme umlauteittamme
instructive — —
comitative — umlauteinemme
second-person plural possessor
singular plural
nominative umlautinne umlautinne
accusative nom. umlautinne umlautinne
gen. umlautinne
genitive umlautinne umlautienne
partitive umlautianne umlautejanne
inessive umlautissanne umlauteissanne
elative umlautistanne umlauteistanne
illative umlautiinne umlauteihinne
adessive umlautillanne umlauteillanne
ablative umlautiltanne umlauteiltanne
allative umlautillenne umlauteillenne
essive umlautinanne umlauteinanne
translative umlautiksenne umlauteiksenne
abessive umlautittanne umlauteittanne
instructive — —
comitative — umlauteinenne
third-person possessor
singular plural
nominative umlautinsa umlautinsa
accusative nom. umlautinsa umlautinsa
gen. umlautinsa
genitive umlautinsa umlautiensa
partitive umlautiaan
umlautiansa 		umlautejaan
umlautejansa
inessive umlautissaan
umlautissansa 		umlauteissaan
umlauteissansa
elative umlautistaan
umlautistansa 		umlauteistaan
umlauteistansa
illative umlautiinsa umlauteihinsa
adessive umlautillaan
umlautillansa 		umlauteillaan
umlauteillansa
ablative umlautiltaan
umlautiltansa 		umlauteiltaan
umlauteiltansa
allative umlautilleen
umlautillensa 		umlauteilleen
umlauteillensa
essive umlautinaan
umlautinansa 		umlauteinaan
umlauteinansa
translative umlautikseen
umlautiksensa 		umlauteikseen
umlauteiksensa
abessive umlautittaan
umlautittansa 		umlauteittaan
umlauteittansa
instructive — —
comitative — umlauteineen
umlauteinensa

Hypernyms

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Anagrams

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Indonesian

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Etymology

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From English umlaut, from German Umlaut in the 19th century, from um- or um (“around, re-, trans-”) + Laut (“sound”).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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umlaut

  1. umlaut (partial assimilation of a vowel)
  2. umlaut (vowel so assimilated)
  3. umlaut (diacritical mark)

See also

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Further reading

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Manx

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Etymology

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From German Umlaut.

Noun

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umlaut m (genitive singular umlaut, plural umlautyn)

  1. (linguistics, orthography) umlaut

Polish

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Polish Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia pl

Etymology

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Borrowed from German Umlaut.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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umlaut m inan

  1. (phonology) umlaut (the partial assimilation of vowels in some Germanic languages)
  2. umlaut (diacritical mark)

Declension

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Declension of umlaut
singular plural
nominative umlaut umlauty
genitive umlautu umlautów
dative umlautowi umlautom
accusative umlaut umlauty
instrumental umlautem umlautami
locative umlaucie umlautach
vocative umlaucie umlauty

Further reading

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  • umlaut in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Portuguese

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Noun

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umlaut m (plural umlauts)

  1. (linguistics) umlaut (the partial assimilation of a vowel in Germanic languages)
  2. (orthography) umlaut (the diacritical mark ¨ used to indicate such assimilation)

Romanian

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Etymology

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Borrowed from German Umlaut.

Noun

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umlaut n (uncountable)

  1. umlaut

Declension

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declension of umlaut (singular only)
singular
n gender indefinite articulation definite articulation
nominative/accusative (un) umlaut umlautul
genitive/dative (unui) umlaut umlautului
vocative umlautule
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