On 2007-01-14 14:26, tgpedersen wrote:
> Does English have instances of w-umlaut (cf the Frisian forms)?
The only kind of back umlaut found in Old English was the
diphthongisation of front vowels if there was a back vowel in the
following syllable: i > io, e > eo, and æ > ea (in dialects with the
"second fronting" of *a), cf. *siBun > siofon '7'. The /y/ of <dyde>
can't have arisen via any such change. Incidentally, in Anglian and
Anglian-influenced varieties of OE (mostly in Northumbrian) one also
finds pl. <de:don> beside <dydon> (the latter is presumably an
innovation based on <dyde> interpreted as a weak preterite).
Piotr