Umlaut

Umlaut in Old English

In Old English, mutation under the influence of subsequent [i] and [j] led to the following changes ^[2] :

[u] → [y] (* fuljan → fyllan "fill" )

[u:] → [y:] (* ontunjan → ontynan “open”; cf. tun “fence” )

[o] → [œ] → [e] (* dohtri → dœhter → dehter “daughter” )

[o:] → [œ:] → [e:] (* foti → fœt → fēt “legs”; cf .: fōt “leg” )

[a] → [e] (* taljan → tellan “tell” ; cf. talu “tell” )

[a:] → [æ:] (* hāljan → hǣlan “to heal” ; hāl “healthy” )

Umlaut in Old High German

At an early stage in the history of the Old High German language, the umlaut was a combinatorial phonetic change.

gast “guest” → gesti “guests”

lamb “lamb” → lembir “lambs”

faran "go" → feris "go"

kraft "strength" → kreftîg "strong"

The consolidation of the umlaut (the so-called primary umlaut ; German: Primärumlaut ) occurs around 750 ([a]), after which this phenomenon spreads through German dialects ^[3] . Before a number of consonant combinations, the umlaut was absent:

ht, hs (naht “night” / nahti “nights” ; wahsan “grow” / wahsit “grows” )

consonant + w (garwen “cook” / garwita)

Umlaut is available in such modern languages ​​as German, Swedish, Norwegian and Icelandic.

Umlaut in Modern German

In German, a vowel that is subject to umlaut is palatalized under the influence of the front vowel (i or e) in the subsequent syllable . Historically, in addition to the front umlaut, there was also a back (or velar) umlaut - assimilation under the influence of the back vowel u. In the modern spelling, the dialectic umlaut sign is used to indicate a changed vowel:

• Mann - Männer ([a] - [ɛ])
• Haus - Häuser ([au] - [oɪ], similar to the pronunciation of eu as [oɪ])
• Hof - Höfe ([o] - [œ])
• Buch - Bücher ([u] - [y])

Umlaut Pronunciation

• ä - like e
• ö - the position of the tongue as with e , and the lips - as with o
• ü - the position of the tongue as with and , and the lips - as with

The umlaut manifests itself most consistently in Uyghur (moreover, both in the sound -i-, which is phonologically neutral in Uyghur and in the lips): baš 'head' - beši 'his / her / their head', teš- 'pierce' - töšük ' hole'. In the Yakut language, which consistently implements syngarmonism , such an umlaut actually borders on the ablaut : khatyn // khotun 'woman'. The Tatar-Bashkir alternation of un '10' also borders on the ablaut - siksən // hikhən '80', tuxan // tuҡkhan '90', since the alternation of narrow and wide timbre is inexplicable at the same time.

Reverse syngarmonism extends to service elements preceding the main word, for example: bu kün> bügün 'today', bu jıl> bıjıl 'this year', Turkish o bir> öbür 'other' (bilateral syngarmonism, regressive in a row, progressive in degree )

Romance languages ​​can distinguish between two, less often and three timbre characteristics depending on the openness / closeness of the subsequent vowel.

Palatal mutation (I-umlaut) explains some of the alternations in Portuguese :

fiz <* / fetsi / “I did”, but fez <* / fetse / “he did”).

Umlaut still takes place in some modern Romance languages, for example, in the Central Venetian , in which the final -i is preserved:

te parchigi <* / parchégi / "you park your car", but parchégio "I park".

Inflection

Inflection is understood as the change of closed o and e into u and i under the influence of subsequent vowels u, i or sonants w, j , as well as a number of other consonants, interpreted as palatal. Most consistently carried out in the Ibero-Romanesque , absent in the Balkan-Romanesque.

Balkan-Romanesque umlaut. Refraction

Refraction is the diphthongization of e> ea (negru-neagră) o> oa (tot-toată) under the influence of subsequent a and e in Balkan-Romance languages. In modern Romanian , however, ea re-develops in e under the influence of subsequent e , in addition, refraction does not work in many borrowings.

In addition to refraction, in some Balkan-Romance languages ​​there is an allophonic variation ı // i, a // ə // e depending on the subsequent vowel (in particular, in Romanian literary ).

• Ablaut
• Singarmonism
• Umlaut (diacritical mark)