umlaut









umlaut


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)

  1. to modify by umlaut.
  2. to write an umlaut over.

noun

  1. the mark (¨) placed over a vowel in some languages, such as German, indicating modification in the quality of the vowelCompare diaeresis
  2. (esp in Germanic languages) the change of a vowel within a word brought about by the assimilating influence of a vowel or semivowel in a preceding or following syllable

n.1852, from German umlaut “change of sound,” from um “about” (see ambi-) + laut “sound,” from Old High German hlut (see listen). Coined 1774 by poet Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (1724-1803) but first used in its current sense 1819 by linguist Jakob Grimm (1785-1863).

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