3 October 2018
umlaut
[oo m-lout] Linguistics
noun
1. a mark (¨) used as a diacritic over a vowel, as ä, ö, ü, to indicate a vowel sound different from that of the letter without the diacritic, especially as so used in German.
Compare dieresis.
2. Also called vowel mutation. (in Germanic languages) assimilation in which a vowel is influenced by a following vowel or semivowel.
verb (used with object)
3. to modify by umlaut.
4. to write an umlaut over.
Origin of umlaut
1835-1845; < German, equivalent to um- about (i.e., changed) + Laut sound
Dictionary.com
Examples from the Web for umlaut
Historical Examples
The umlaut of all these sounds was completed by about the year 1200.
A Middle High German Primer
Joseph Wright
That the radical vowel was modified: for y is the umlaut of u; 3.
Notes and Queries, Number 182, April 23, 1853
Various
The absence of this umlaut points to Northumbrian or W. Saxon.
Selections from Early Middle English 1130-1250: Part II: Notes
Various
Wing (n), ahpcha (ch guttural; final a almost as if with umlaut, short and low).
Travels in the Interior of North America, 1832-1834, Part III (the Text Being Chapters XXVIII-XXXIII of the London Edition, 1843, and the Appendix a Combination of the Appendices of the London and German [Coblentz, 1839] Editions)
Maximilian, Prinz von Wied
The spelling of the original is ‘Buwelle,’ without the umlaut, which others use.
Pennsylvania Dutch
S. S. Haldeman
For consistency with the remaining text, an umlaut was added to ‘coperate.’
Principles of Political Economy, Vol. II
William Roscher
The u- – umlaut of a is wanting, except in eawles 126; for heatel 128 heates is read.
Selections from Early Middle English 1130-1250: Part II: Notes
Various
I suspect the last is only an umlaut form of a common Shakespearean imprecation.
The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries
W. Y. Evans Wentz
There is no trace of such vocalic mutation (“ umlaut ”) in Gothic, our most archaic Germanic language.
Language
Edward Sapir
“ umlaut ” is still a very live symbolic process in German, possibly more alive to-day than in medieval times.
Language
Edward Sapir
Today’s quote
People who notice everything but remain silent are to be feared.
– Unknown
On this day
3 October 1226 – death of St Francis of Assisi, Italian friar and founder of the men’s Franciscan Order, the women’s Order of St Clare and the Third Order of St Francis. Although these are all Catholic Orders, he was never ordained as a Catholic priest. Born 26 September 1181.
3 October 1925 – birth of Gore Vidal, American author, playwright, essayist and political activist. Died 31 July 2012.
3 October 1942 – Nazi Germany becomes the first nation to reach space with the launch of the V2 rocket fuelled by alcohol and liquid oxygen, which travelled 190 kilometres, taking it into the Earth’s thermosphere. The V2 was the world’s first long-range ballistic missile which Hitler’s forces used to great effect against the Allied armies. The V2 was developed by Werner von Braun (the Father of Rocket Science), who later worked on the American rocket and space program. Following the war, the Soviet Union and the USA raced to develop rocket technology so head-hunted former Nazi rocket scientists and acquired samples of the V2.