Umlaut - What does it mean?
umlaut | |
(linguistics) An assimilatory process whereby a vowel is pronounced more like a following vocoid that is separated by one or more consonants.
(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 l?siz'' > Old English ''l?s(i) > Modern English lice).
(linguistics) A vowel so assimilated.
(orthography) The diacritical mark ( ) placed over a vowel, usually when it indicates such assimilation.
To place an umlaut over (a vowel).
(linguistics) To modify (a word) so that an umlaut is required in it.
umlaut
English
Noun
(en-noun)Usage notes
* Although this symbol has the same form as the diaeresis/dieresis, it has as 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. “a umlaut” or “umlauted a” (). (German practice is to say “a Umlaut”, or more commonly to pronounce the letters, so the name of "Ä" is [??], just as "A" is [a?] and "B" is [be?].) * In alphabetic orders, "ä, ö, ü" are treated as "a, o, u" in German (so the word comes directly after 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
* (orthography) (l) * (linguistics) (l)Derived terms
* (l)Verb
(en verb)- an umlauting vowel