Re: a-umlaut (was Re: Epicene words)

Hi!

Jörg Rhiemeier <joerg_rhiemeier@...> writes:
> Hallo!
>
> On Mon, 28 Feb 2005 00:54:11 +0100,
> Henrik Theiling <theiling@...> wrote:
>
> > Hi!
> >
> > Jörg Rhiemeier <joerg_rhiemeier@...> writes:
> > >...
> > > _halera_ (< *hal-ir-a) `healer'
> >
> > Is this a-umlaut?  I mean the *-ir-a > -era part of that?
>
> It is.
It's nice! :-)

> There is also i-umlaut (as demonstrated by the two
> non-epicene forms _heliro_ and _helire_ in the first syllable)
Yes, I noticed that, too.  Nothing strange about that, but a-umlaut is
really a nice spice.

> and u-umlaut (e.g. dual _halyru_ < *hal-ir-u).
You couldn't get enough? :-)

I suppose this does rounding?  Anything else?  I only know the
Westnordic u-umlaut which manifests (from the productive ancient
u-umlaut) in modern Icelandic most significantly as a > ö shifts in
the a-stem declension (köttur, with stem katt-).  What does it do in
Albic?

There is an occasional two-syllable u-umlaut in Icelandic, as in
altari (nom.sg.) > ölturum (dat.pl.), which I find interesting, too.
So it could well be *hölyru in Old Albic. :-)))

But the funniest u-umlaut so-far encountered was in 'Diana' (nom.sg.)
(the proper name) > 'Diönu' (all other forms).  It took a while to
figure this one out in a newspaper I was trying to decypher on a plane
to Keflavík.

> I think it occurs in some North Germanic languages, though I am
> not sure about that.
Does anyone know examples?  That's interesting! :-)

**Henrik