----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, December 01, 2003 4:17
PM
Subject: Re: [norse_course] umlauts,
ablauts?
umlaut is a little like turkish vowel harmony. that is,
umlaut is an attempt
at vowel harmony. it is when a vowel changes in
pronounciation to
approximate another vowel, it moves closer to that
vowel. for instance, in
old icelandic you get umlauts when the vowel in
front of an i, u or a tries
to move closer to that sound. this way i
draws a from its open, middle
position into a more frontal position,
making an open e (the hooked e), u
draws a into a position further back
and rounds it a little, to make the
very open o (hooked o), and a draws u
down towards it to make o.. this is
the basic function of umlaut, to draw
sounds closer to each other. of
course, all it does is make the vowel
system more complex, but at the
beginning, it's not a destinct sound to
the speaker. he thinks of a, hooked
e and hooked o as the same vowel, he
just pronounces the a slightly
differently if it's followed by i or u..
then when you start loosing the
sound that caused the umlaut and keeping
the umlauted sound, that's when it
starts getting interesting.. a little
like with the initial mutations of
irish. it's originally just a
phonological rule, but then becomes
grammatical when the cause is lost.
this is why historical linguistics
are
fun.
berglaug
----- Original Message -----
From:
"Fred & Grace Hatton" <hatton@...>
To:
<norse_course@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, December 01, 2003
12:41 PM
Subject: [norse_course] umlauts, ablauts?
> I know
what an umlaut is in German, and I can understand that there is
a
> vowel change in the plural that seems to go with the
foot/feet thing
> we have in English, but could someone explain in
more detail exactly
> what is meant by the i umlaut. In German
you indicate the sound with
> two dots over the vowel in question and
the sound can also be written by
> sticking in an extra e to create
the same sound. I'm not following what
> is happening with the i
umlaut in Old Norse.
>
> Also what is an ablaut?
>
Thanks!
> Grace
> --
>
> Fred & Grace
Hatton
> Hawley, Pa.
>
>
>
>
>
> A
Norse funny farm, overrun by smart people.
>
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