umlaut
umlaut Lexical Profile
umlaut Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A diacritical mark (¨) consisting of two dots placed over a vowel, especially in German and related languages, to indicate a change in vowel sound.
"When typing German on an English keyboard, you can replace a vowel with an umlaut by adding an 'e' right after the vowel."
A linguistic process in which a back vowel is fronted or a low vowel is raised under the influence of a front vowel or glide in the following syllable, common in Germanic languages.
"The English plural pair 'foot' and 'feet' is a surviving vestige of Germanic umlaut."
• verb
To modify a vowel by means of an umlaut, either phonetically through vowel mutation or orthographically by adding the two-dot diacritic.
"In standard German, many one-syllable nouns umlaut their stem vowel when forming the plural."
Word Nuance & Usage
Although visually identical as a two-dot diacritical mark, an 'umlaut' indicates a shift in vowel quality (especially in German), whereas a 'diaeresis' indicates that two adjacent vowels are pronounced in separate syllables (as in 'naïve').
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed in the mid-19th century from German 'Umlaut', coined in 1774 by poet Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock and popularized by linguist Jacob Grimm from 'um-' (around, denoting alteration) and 'Laut' (sound).