umlaut

Borrowed from German Umlaut in the 19^th century, from um- or um (“around, re-, trans-”) + Laut (“sound”), from Old High German hlūt. More at umb, loud.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈʊm.laʊt/, /ˈʌm.laʊt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈʊm.laʊt/, /ˈum.laʊt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

umlaut (plural umlauts or umlaute)

1. (linguistics) An assimilatory process whereby a vowel is pronounced more like a following vocoid that is separated by one or more consonants.
2. (linguistics) The umlaut process (as above) that occurred historically in Germanic languages whereby back vowels became front vowels when followed by syllable containing a front vocoid (e.g. Germanic lūsiz > Old English lȳs(i) > Modern English lice).
3. (linguistics) A vowel so assimilated.
4. (orthography) The diacritical mark ( ¨ ) placed over a vowel when it indicates a (rounded) front vowel
5. (informal, orthography) Synonym of diaeresis

   Naive takes an umlaut as it's pronounced as two syllables.

• Although this symbol has the same form as the diaeresis/dieresis, it has as a different function and so in standard and technical usage these two terms are not interchangeable. The term for the diacritic mark, as opposed to its function, is trema.
• When spelling a German word out loud, one can say “(vowel) umlaut” or “umlauted (vowel)”. e.g. “a umlaut” or “umlauted a” (ä). (German practice is to say “a Umlaut”, or more commonly to pronounce the letters, so the name of "Ä" is [ɛː], just as "A" is [aː] and "B" is [beː].)
• In alphabetic orders, "ä, ö, ü" are treated as "a, o, u" or "ae, oe, ue" in German (so the word lügen comes directly after or before the word lugen). In other languages, such as Swedish, the umlaut letters may have their own position in the alphabet.
• The usual English plural is umlauts, but the form umlaute (after the German) has seen some use. It is quite rare, however.

• (orthography): trema
• (linguistics): vowel mutation

• heavy metal umlaut

• vowel harmony

umlaut (third-person singular simple present umlauts, present participle umlauting, simple past and past participle umlauted)

1. (transitive) To place an umlaut over (a vowel).
2. (linguistics, transitive) To modify (a word) so that an umlaut is required in it.

   an umlauting vowel

• diaeresis, dieresis

• mutual

Borrowed from German Umlaut.

umlaut

1. umlaut (assimilation a->ä, o->ö or u->ü in German and some closely related languages)

• vokaalinmukaus

• muulta

Borrowed from German Umlaut.

umlaut m (genitive singular umlaut, plural umlautyn)

1. (linguistics, orthography) umlaut

umlaut m (plural umlauts)

1. (linguistics) umlaut (partial assimilation of a vowel in Germanic languages)
2. (orthography) umlaut (the diacritical mark ¨ used to indicate such assimilation)