Umlaut (diacritic)

This article is about the use of two dots mark to indicate the vowel-fronting sound change. For other uses of the same mark, seeTwo dots (diacritic).

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Umlaut
U+0308◌̈COMBINING DIAERESIS

Umlaut(/ˈʊmlaʊt/) is a name for thetwo dotsdiacritical mark(◌̈) as used to indicate in writing (as part of the letters⟨ä⟩,⟨ö⟩,and⟨ü⟩) the result of the historicalsound shiftdue to which formerback vowelsare now pronounced asfront vowels(for example[a],[ɔ],and[ʊ]as[ɛ],[œ],and[ʏ]). (The termGermanic umlautis also used for the underlying historical sound shift process.)

In its contemporary printed form, the mark consists of two dots placed over the letter to represent the changed vowel sound.

U-umlautson a German traffic sign

German origin and current usage

Umlaut(literally "changed sound" ) is the German name of the sound shift phenomenon also known asi-mutation.In German, this term is also used for the corresponding letters ä, ö, and ü (and the diphthong äu) and the sounds that these letters represent. In German, the combination of a letter with the diacritical mark is calledUmlaut,while the marks themselves are calledUmlautzeichen(literally "umlaut sign" ).

In German, the umlaut diacritic indicates that the short back vowels and the diphthong[aʊ]are pronounced ( "shifted forward in the mouth" ) as follows:

• [a]→[ɛ]
• [ɔ]→[œ]
• [ʊ]→[ʏ]
• [aʊ]→[ɔʏ]

And the long back vowels are pronounced in the front of the mouth as follows:

• [aː]→ very formal/old fashioned and in southern accents[ɛː],in most speakers[eː](resulting in a merger with/eː/)
• [oː]→[øː]
• [uː]→[yː]

In modern German orthography, the affected graphemes⟨a⟩,⟨o⟩,⟨u⟩,and⟨au⟩are written as⟨ä⟩,⟨ö⟩,⟨ü⟩,and⟨äu⟩,i.e. they are written with the umlaut diacritic, which looks identical to thediaeresis markused in other European languages and is represented by the same Unicode character.

History

Further information:Germanic umlaut

New and old forms of umlaut

Illustration of the development of umlaut:schoen⇨schoͤn⇨schön('beautiful'). TheSütterlin scriptused here is a later development, however.

TheGermanic umlautis a specific historical phenomenon of vowel-fronting inGermanand otherGermanic languages,including English. English examples are 'man ~ men' and 'foot ~ feet' (from Proto-Germanic*fōts,pl.*fōtiz), but English orthography does not indicate this vowel change using the umlaut diacritic.

Germanphonological umlautwas present in theOld High Germanperiod and continued to develop inMiddle High German.From the Middle High German period, it was sometimes denoted in written German by adding aneto the affected vowel, either after the vowel or, in small form, above it. This can still be seen in some names, e.g.Goethe,Goebbels,Staedtler.In medieval German manuscripts, otherdigraphswere also commonly written using superscripts. Inbluome( "flower" ), for example, the⟨o⟩was frequently placed above the⟨u⟩(blůme). This letter survives now only inCzech.Compare also⟨ñ⟩for the digraphnn,with thetildeas a superscript⟨n⟩.

Inblackletterhandwriting, as used in German manuscripts of the later Middle Ages, and also in many printed texts of the early modern period, the superscript⟨e⟩still had a form that would be recognisable as an⟨e⟩,but in manuscript writing, umlauted vowels could be indicated by two dots since the late medieval period.

In theforms of handwritingthat emerged in theearly modern period(of whichSütterlinis the latest and best-known example) the letter⟨e⟩was composed of two short vertical lines very close together, and the superscript⟨e⟩looked like two tiny strokes. Even from the 16th century, the handwritten convention of indicating umlaut by two dots placed above the affected vowel is also found in printed texts.

Unusual umlaut designs are sometimes also created for graphic design purposes, such as to fit umlaut dots into tightly spaced lines of text.This may include umlaut dots placed vertically or inside the body of the letter.

Printing conventions in German

When typing German with a keyboard that doesn't have umlaut letters, it is usual to replace them with the underlying vowel followed by an⟨e⟩.So, for example, "Schröder" becomes "Schroeder". As the pronunciation differs greatly between the normal letter and the umlaut, simply omitting the dots would be incorrect. The result would often be a different word, as inschon"already",schön"beautiful"; or a different grammatic form, e.g.Mutter"mother",Mütter"mothers".

Despite this, the umlauted letters are not considered to be separate letters of the Alpha bet in German, in contrast to the situation in other Germanic languages.

WhenAlpha betically sortingGerman words, the umlaut is usually not distinguished from the underlying vowel, although if two words differ only by an umlaut, the umlauted one comes second, for example:

1. schon
2. schön
3. schonen

There is a second system in limited use, mostly for sorting names (such as in telephone directories),which treats ö like oe, and so on.

1. schön
2. schon
3. schonen

Austriantelephone directories insert ö after oz.

1. schon
2. schonen
3. schön

Swiss keyboard layout

InSwitzerland,capital umlauts are sometimes printed asdigraphs,in other words,⟨Ae⟩,⟨Oe⟩,⟨Ue⟩,instead of⟨Ä⟩,⟨Ö⟩,⟨Ü⟩(seeGerman Alpha bet § Umlaut diacritic usagefor an elaboration). This is becauseSwiss typewriter keyboardsuse the same keys for French accents (in Swiss French) as are used for German umlauts (in Swiss German) and which version is active (on a computer) is chosen by system setting. Consequently to apply an accent or umlaut to a capital letter requires use of adead keymechanism.

Borrowing of German umlaut notation

Some languages have borrowed some of the forms of the German lettersÄ,Ö,orÜ,includingAzerbaijani,Estonian,Finnish,Hungarian,Karelian,some of theSami languages,Slovak,Swedish,andTurkish.This indicates sounds similar to the corresponding umlauted letters in German. In spoken Scandinavian languages the grammatical umlaut change is used (singular to plural, derivations, etc.) but the character used differs between languages. In Finnish, a/ä and o/ö change systematically in suffixes according to the rules ofvowel harmony.In Hungarian, where long vowels are indicated with an acute accent, the umlaut notation has been expanded with a version of the umlaut which looks likedouble acute accents,indicating a blend of umlaut and acute. Contrast: short ö; long ő.

The Estonian Alpha bet has borrowed⟨ä⟩,⟨ö⟩,and⟨ü⟩from German; Swedish and Finnish have⟨ä⟩and⟨ö⟩;and Slovak has⟨ä⟩.In Estonian, Swedish, Finnish, and Sami⟨ä⟩and⟨ö⟩denote[æ]and[ø],respectively. Hungarian and Turkish have⟨ö⟩and⟨ü⟩.

Slovakuses the letter⟨ä⟩to denote[e](or a bit archaic but still correct[ɛɐ]). The sign is calleddve bodky[ˈdʋeˈbɔtki]( "two dots" ), and the full name of the letteräisširoké e[ˈʂirɔkeːˈe]( "wide e" ). The similar worddvojbodka[ˈdʋɔjbɔtka]( "double dot" ) however refers to thecolon.

In these languages, with the exception of Hungarian, the replacement rule for situations where the umlaut character is not available, is to simply use the underlying unaccented character instead. Hungarian follows the German rules and replaces⟨ö⟩and⟨ü⟩with⟨oe⟩and⟨ue⟩respectively– at least for telegrams and telex messages. The same rule is followed for the near-lookalikes⟨ő⟩and⟨ű⟩.

InLuxembourgish(Lëtzebuergesch),⟨ä⟩and⟨ë⟩represent stressed[æ]and[ə](schwa) respectively. The letters⟨ü⟩and⟨ö⟩do not occur in native Luxembourgish words, but at least the former is common in words borrowed from standard German.

When Turkish switched from the Arabic to the Latin Alpha bet in 1928, it adopted a number of diacritics borrowed from various languages, including⟨ü⟩and⟨ö⟩from German (probably reinforced by their use in languages like Swedish, Hungarian, etc.). These Turkish graphemes represent sounds similar to their respective values in German (seeTurkish Alpha bet).

As the borrowed diacritic has lost its relationship to Germanic i-mutation, they are in some languages considered independentgraphemes,and cannot be replaced with⟨ae⟩,⟨oe⟩,or⟨ue⟩as in German. In Estonian and Finnish, for example, these latter diphthongs have independent meanings. Even some Germanic languages, such as Swedish (whichdoeshave a transformation analogous to the German umlaut, calledomljud), treat them always as independent letters. Incollation,this means they have their own positions in the Alpha bet, for example at the end ( "A–Ö" or "A–Ü", not "A–Z" ) as in Swedish, Estonian and Finnish, which means that the dictionary order is different from German. The transformationsä→aeandö→oecan, therefore, be considered less appropriate for these languages, although Swedish and Finnish passports use the transformation to render ö and ä (andåasaa) in themachine-readable zone.In contexts of technological limitation, e.g. in English based systems, Swedes can either be forced to omit the diacritics or use the two letter system.

When typing inNorwegian,the lettersÆandØmight be replaced withÄandÖrespectively if the former are not available. Ifäis not available either, it is appropriate to useae.The same goes foröandoe.Whileaehas a great resemblance to the letteræand, therefore, does not impede legibility, the digraphoeis likely to reduce the legibility of a Norwegian text. This especially applies to the digraphøy,which would be rendered in the more cryptic formoey.Also inDanish,Ö has been used in place of Ø in some older texts and to distinguish between open and closed ö-sounds and when confusion with other symbols could occur, e.g. on maps. The Danish/Norwegian Ø is like the German Ö a development of OE, to be compared with the FrenchŒ.

EarlyVolapükusedFraktura,oanduas different fromAntiquaones. Later, the Fraktur forms were replaced with umlauted vowels.

The usage of umlaut-like diacritic vowels, particularlyü,occurs in theromanizationof languages that do not use the Roman Alpha bet, such asChinese.For example,Mandarin ChineseNữ[ny˨˩˦]( "female" ) is romanized asnǚinHanyu Pinyin.Tibetan pinyinusesä, ö, üwith approximately their German values.

TheCyrilliclettersӓ,ӧ,ӱare used inMari,Khanty,and other languages for approximately[æ],[ø],and[y].These directly parallel the German umlautä, ö, ü.Other vowels using a double dot to modify their values in various minority languages of Russia areӛ,ӫ,andӹ.

Use of the umlaut for special effect

See also:Metal umlaut

The two dot diacritic can be used in "sensational spellings"orforeign branding,for example in advertising, or for other special effects, where it is usually called an umlaut (rather than a diaeresis).Mötley Crüe,Blue Öyster Cult,MotörheadandHäagen-Dazsare examples of such usage.

Subscript umlaut

TheInternational Phonetic Alphabetuses a double dot below a letter, a notation it calls "subscript umlaut"to indicatebreathy (murmured) voice,(for example Hindi[kʊm̤ar]"potter".) TheALA-LC romanizationsystem provides for its use and is one of themain schemes to romanize Persian(for example, rendering⟨ض⟩as⟨z̤⟩). The notation was used to write some Asian languages in Latin script, for exampleRed Karen.

See also

• Two dots (disambiguation)