umlaut

[Jan Ivarsson TransEdit]

No, he won't say "U-trema". The trema is what you see - the two dots - and the Umlaut is what you hear, like when "goose" changes into "geese". So he will pronounce the "ü", which is a sound as different from the German "u" as the English "oo" from "ee". When spelling it out loud he will say "m-ü-l-l-e-r" - six letters. And he would of course not dream of spelling the plural of "goose" "g-o with Umlaut-o with Umlaut-s-e".
And the German definition of "Umlaut" is crystal clear:
"1. Change of a vowel through the original influence of the following, more frontal vowel, in Nhd (new high German) a into ä, o into ö, u into ü, au into äu. 2. The thus created sound itself." (My translation from Gerhard Wahrig, Deutsches Wörterbuch, mit einem "Lexikon der deutschen Sprachlehre"...)
I do not think that many Germans would get into fights over this. There may be som less educated ones who cannot distinguish between "Umlaut" and "Ablaut", though.
When asked by his teacher, the schollboy might explain that the Umlaut in writing is indicated by the trema above the original vowel.
Jan Ivarsson
jan.ivarsson at transedit.st
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark Odegard" <markodegard at HOTMAIL.COM>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2001 9:53 PM
Subject: Re: umlaut


> ><Is "tréma" used outside of French?
> >- - - -From: "Laurence Horn"
> >
> >"Trema" is used also in German and the Nordic languages, precisely to name
> >"the double dots over a letter", which covers also its use in the
> >meaningless "Motörhead" or "Häagen-Dazs" - the latter an impossible
> >construction in any of the languages I speak.
> >This leaves the words "diaeresis" and "Umlaut" to cover what they really
> >mean - from the linguist's point of view.
> >
> >Jan Ivarsson
>
> Really? Your typical German schoolboy will, when spelling out or describing
> a letter will say 'u-trema'? instead of 'u-umlaut' (or whatever is said in
> German ?U mit trema?), as when explaining over the phone how 'Mueller' is to
> be spelled, with a trema over the U or with an E after the U.
>
> I have heard that Germans themselves get into fights over the definition of
> 'umlaut'.
>
>
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