Re: TERMS: Umlaut-Ablaut

> Date:         Mon, 15 Nov 1999 07:01:24 +0100
> From: Raymond Brown <ray.brown@...>
> 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.
That's funny, I never perceived a conflict there. I just put different
stress on them --- the letters are 'a-"umlaut' and so on, and the
phon. phenn. are '"a umlaut' aso. So in German, the "i umlaut of a is
spelled a-"umlaut... no problems.

> 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(
It's more that a-Umlaut is the correct German name for the letter.
Come to think of it, I probably got the pron. with stress on Umlaut
from German.

Lars Mathiesen (U of Copenhagen CS Dep) <thorinn@...> (Humour NOT marked)