Re: TERMS: Umlaut-Ablaut

At 7:13 pm -0500 14/11/99, Padraic Brown wrote:
[....]
>
>Are there o and e umlaut at all then?  What kind of umlaut is
>"Goethe", or is it?  I always thought it was, but would appreciate
>clarification.
German 'oe' (or 'o' with an umlaut) in native words is caused by _i-umlaut_
of an original 'o' (in words from Greek it merely represents ancient Greek
'oi').  I assume the name 'Goethe' derives from the same root as 'Goth',
and is the result of i-umlaut.

I think there may be some confusion in terminoly.  'umlaut' is properly
used to describe the modification of a root vowel conditioned by
anticipating the vocalism of a suffix, particularly if the latter is then
dropped, e.g. protoGermanic *f=F8:t (feet) <-- *f=F8:t <-- fot:ti.

That is an example of i-umlaut, i.e. umlaut conditioned by an original
final -i which is now lost in all the modern Germanic langs.

Welsh has many examples of both i-umlaut & a-umlaut; Old Norse has examples
of i-umlaut & u-umlaut (Does it also have a-umlaut?  I wasn't aware of it)
- i.e. vowels modified by anticpating a final -a or -u which was
subsequently lost.

But - 'umlaut' is often used also to describe the two dots placed over
modified vowels in German (I've even heard the 'e' in the French 'No=EBl'
called 'e-umlaut'!).  In that usage, of course, we have "a-umlaut",
"o-umlaut" & "u-umlaut" in German - but they are _all_ examples of i-umlaut.

I'd prefer to called the written forms 'umlauted a', 'umlauted o' etc. -
but I guess purists would object to putting an English suffix onto a German
word   :=3D(

AFAIK umlaut - in the phonological sense - is caused only by anticipating
vowels at the vertices of the vocalic triangle.  Indeed, it's difficult to
see why mid vowels should trigger such a modification.

Ray.

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A mind which thinks at its own expense
will always interfere with language.
                   [J.G. Hamann 1760]
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