ADS-L/NTY synergy

[Paul Frank]

> >  I call the
> >double-dot in Finnish and Chinese "umlaut" with no shame ...
>
> The Finnish one, at least, IS an umlaut, as is the Turkish
> counterpart--they mark the vowels they sit on as fronted.  Seems like
> umlautish behavior to me.  Likewise the one in Tibetan, I'm pretty
> sure.  I don't know about the Chinese one, though--is it a
> vowel-fronter?
> larry

Chinese u in, say, lu is also an umlaut. Depending on tone and written
character, lu can mean law, deer, green, and a number of other things. I
don't know if it makes sense to speak of umlauts in Chinese. Isn't an umlaut
a German vowel sound that has changed from u to u or a to a or o to o, such
as singular Mann and plural Manner? No such process takes place in Chinese.
But don't take my word for any of this, because I know nothing about
linguistics. Or is an umlaut such a diacritical mark? In that case the
pinyin transliteration of Chinese does have umlauts.

Paul

--
Paul Frank
Business, financial and legal translation
>From German, French, Chinese, Italian,
Spanish and Portuguese into English
Thollon, Haute-Savoie, France
paulfrank at post.harvard.edu