Ed Heil wrote in response to me:
> > By the way, German converts Greek ai/Latin ae to a-umlaut, and oi/Lat=
in=20
>oe
> > to o-umlaut. Examples: Ge <=C4gypt> 'Egypt' from Gk <Aigyptos>, and
> > <=F6kumenisch> 'ecumenical' from <oikumene:> 'household'. How did th=
ese
> > fronted vowels (especially the latter, the front mid round) come abou=
t?
>
>I do not know, but I would guess that this is a spelling
>pronunciation -- that Germans had used oe, ae to describe umlauts, and
>that they then read those values in to Latin oe and ae diphthongs.
>But I'm no Germanicist.
You're exactly right about the origin of umlauts! This I just remembered=
--=20
the whole origin of the two dots above the vowel to represent fronting is=
=20
that it was an abbreviation for <e> after the vowel. It was originally t=
wo=20
wedges pointing downward, then it turned into two dots. Thus it has a=20
completely different history than the Greek diaeresis, which of course do=
es=20
not indicate a vowel shift but a separation of syllables.
And that could be an explanation of how Latin/Greek -e/-i dipthongs becam=
e=20
umlaut vowels in German. I outta read up on that...
Danny
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