Re: TERMS: Umlaut-Ablaut

Barry Garcia wrote:

> ray.brown@freeuk.com writes:
> >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=EB=
l'
> >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.
>
> That's what I always thought 'umlaut' meant, that you had two dots plac=
ed
> over a vowel for a modified sound, as in the Spanish word for bilingual=
,
> "biling=FCe"
Nope.  There are two subtleties here:  indication of a change from
its normal *phonological* instantiation (whether diachronic or synchronic=
),
and indication of a change from its normal *orthographic* instantiation.
German umlauts usually represent the former, though sometimes they just
represent a sound in its own right (such as one informal form of "nein":
"n=F6").
Greek "umlauts" invariably (AFAIK) represent the latter -- I just ran acr=
oss
one the other day in fact in a reading of a speech by Lysias, in <pros=EF=
ontos>

/prOsi'OntOs/ (the participial form of proseimi, "to go forward").

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Tom Wier <artabanos@...>
ICQ#: 4315704   AIM: Deuterotom
Website: <http://www.angelfire.com/tx/eclectorium/>
"Cogito ergo sum, sed credo ergo ero."

Non cuicumque datum est habere nasum.
It is not given to just anyone to have a nose.
        -- Martial
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