Re: TERMS: Umlaut-Ablaut

On Sat, 13 Nov 1999, Raymond Brown wrote:

>
>I remember when we had a similar thread here a year or so back, someone
>gave examples of u-umlaut, but I'm afraid I've forgotten them.
That was probably me.  Old Norse has gobs of nice u-umlauts.  All of
the results of u/w umlaut result in vowels I can pronounce but can't
type in ascii nor render in IPA.  I'll try the best I can.  A good
example is the God's name Tyr (long y), having been w-umlauted from
Tiwr (long i). The plural (gods) remains unumlauted: Tivar.  The verb
go/ra (o with slash, meaning make, build, etc.) derives from *garwjan:
garwjan w-umlauts to gorja(n) (o with a hook under), which then
j-umlauts to o with a slash.  Two umlauts for the price of one.

In Norse, there are three basic types of umlaut: a, u & i.  Subtypes
are w and j, the consonants analagous to u and i.  U/w and i/j have
identical effects on their umlautees (but w has a wider range of
umlautees available). These are also known as labial and palatal
umlaut.

Padraic.

>
>Ray.
>