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Re: Umlaut

From:Thomas R. Wier <trwier@...>
Date:Thursday, August 22, 2002, 9:11
Quoting Balazs Sudar <conlang@...>:

> Vowel E: > When in final position, change: e > i, long e > ei. When not, > then both short and long remain the same. > > Vowel A: > When in final position, it changes a > ai, long a > ae. > Anywhere else: a > e, long a > long e
This is a good start, but umlauting is usually taken to mean that an /i/ in one part of the word causes not diphthongization, but an actual change in some phonological feature of a neighboring vowel. So, in Proto-English, "foot" was /fo:t/, and an -i was the plural ending. This -i shifted the preceding /o:/ forward to become a front vowel [9:], a vowel at the same height and frontness of /e:/ but *it kept its roundedness*. Likewise, i-umlaut shifts /a/ to /&/, a front low unrounded vowel. (The rules you posit above of course are also possible, but then one does not usually call them umlaut.) ========================================================================= Thomas Wier Dept. of Linguistics "Nihil magis praestandum est quam ne pecorum ritu University of Chicago sequamur antecedentium gregem, pergentes non qua 1010 E. 59th Street eundum est, sed qua itur." -- Seneca Chicago, IL 60637

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Pavel Iosad <pavel_iosad@...>