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umlaut - 4 dictionary results

um⋅laut

  [oom-lout] Linguistics
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–noun
1. a mark (¨) used as a diacritic over a vowel, as ä, ö, ü, to indicate a vowel sound different from that of the letter without the diacritic, esp. as so used in German. Compare dieresis.
2. Also called vowel mutation. (in Germanic languages) assimilation in which a vowel is influenced by a following vowel or semivowel.
–verb (used with object)
3. to modify by umlaut.
4. to write an umlaut over.
Origin:
1835–45; < G, equiv. to um- about (i.e., changed) + Laut sound
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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um·laut   (ŏŏm'lout')   
n.  
    1. A change in a vowel sound caused by partial assimilation especially to a vowel or semivowel occurring in the following syllable.
    2. A vowel sound changed in this manner. Also called vowel mutation.
  2. The diacritic mark (¨) placed over a vowel to indicate an umlaut, especially in German.
tr.v.   um·laut·ed, um·laut·ing, um·lauts
  1. To modify by umlaut.
  2. To write or print (a vowel) with an umlaut.

[German : um-, around, alteration (from Middle High German umb-, from umbe, from Old High German umbi; see ambhi in Indo-European roots) + Laut, sound (from Middle High German lūt, from Old High German hlūt; see kleu- in Indo-European roots).]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Umlaut

Um"laut\, n. [G., from um about + laut sound.] (Philol.) The euphonic modification of a root vowel sound by the influence of a, u, or especially i, in the syllable which formerly followed.

Note: It is peculiar to the Teutonic languages, and was common in Anglo-Saxon. In German the umlauted vowels resulting from a, o, u, followed by old i, are written ["a], ["o], ["u], or ae, oe, ue; as, m["a]nner or maenner, men, from mann, man. Examples of forms resulting from umlaut in English are geese pl. of goose, men pl. of man, etc.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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umlaut 
1852, from Ger., "change of sound," from um "about" (see ambi-) + laut "sound," from O.H.G. hlut (see listen). Coined 1774 by poet Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (1724-1803) but first used in its current sense 1819 by linguist Jakob Grimm (1785-1863).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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