a-umlaut (was Re: Epicene words)

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.  There is also i-umlaut (as demonstrated by the two
non-epicene forms _heliro_ and _helire_ in the first syllable)
and u-umlaut (e.g. dual _halyru_ < *hal-ir-u).

> I often thought about a-umlaut in some language for lowering high
> vowels (e.g. in Da Mätz se Basa there are non-productive traces of
> it).  Is it something like that?  Does it occur in natlangs?
I think it occurs in some North Germanic languages, though I am
not sure about that.

Greetings,

Jörg.

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