saying "umlaut"

Herb Stahlke hfwstahlke at GMAIL.COM
Sat Oct 10 03:24:47 UTC 2009


I don't have any falling diphthongs that end on a tense vowel, and I
do have the same stress pattern on umlaut as on the compound noun
"strikeout".  Or are you suggesting a tense target for the falling
diphthongs?  Actually, my onset vowel for /aU/ is closer to [V], with
[@] before voiceless codas, except in words where rural SE Michigan
has a minimal contrast between the two diphthongs, as in "round" (adj)
and "round" (prep).

Herb

On Fri, Oct 9, 2009 at 8:30 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: saying "umlaut"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 8:18 PM -0400 10/9/09, Herb Stahlke wrote:
>>I think I learned the word in high school in German class, and it's
>>always been /'UmlaUt/ for me.  I'm not sure I've ever heard Julia's
>>pronunciation.
>
> My suggestion earlier was ['Umlaut], beginning
> with the vowel in "book" (short, but rounded).
> [^m] for the first syllable would sound odd to me
> too; [umlaut] would sound a bit hyper-Teutonic
> but not too remarkable.  Beats me if I can tell
> the difference between my proffered [au]
> diphthong in the unstressed syllable and Herb's
> [aU].
>
> LH
>
>>
>>On Fri, Oct 9, 2009 at 7:48 PM, Julia Achenbach
>><julia.achenbach at uni-oldenburg.de> wrote:
>>>  ---------------------- Information from the
>>>mail header -----------------------
>>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>  Poster:       Julia Achenbach <julia.achenbach at UNI-OLDENBURG.DE>
>>>  Subject:      Re: saying "umlaut"
>>>
>>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>>  Shouldn't it be something like this:
>>>  'Ê mlaÊ t ???
>>>
>>>  The letter "u" is short, similar to the way "u" is pronounced in "gun",
>>>  the so ~oom seems just a little bit weird to me.
>>>
>>>>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>>>  -----------------------
>>>>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>>>  Poster:       Tom Zurinskas <truespel at HOTMAIL.COM>
>>>>>  Subject:      saying "umlaut"
>>>>>
>>>>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>
>>>>>  Interestly "umlaut" has multiple pronunciations.
>>>>>
>>>>>  At forvo.com, enter "umlaut", click on the resulting first word (not
>>>>>  arrow), see three pronunciations:
>>>>>
>>>>>  1  ~oomlout (where ~oo is as in "good" ~ou as in "out", spoken by topquark
>>>>>  2. ~oomlou' (where "t" is dropped or glottalized) spoken by threb
>>>>>  3. ~oomllaat  (stress second syl, with ~aa as in "Saab", spoken by Olbill.
>>>>>
>>>>>  thefreedictionary.com has
>>>>>  1. USA = ~uemlout (where ~ue is as in "true")
>>>>>  2. UK = ~uemllout (stress second syllable)
>>>>>
>>>>>  m-w.com has two pronunciations
>>>>>  1. firstly  ~oomlout
>>>>>  2. secondly  ~uemlout
>>>>>  (but the phonetic notation is in reverse order.  So which is really first
>>>>>  or second?)
>>>>>
>>>>>  It's pretty rare in English to have a word start with ~oo.  Of the top 5k
>>>>>  most popular words, none do.
>>>>>
>>>>>  Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL7+
>>>>>  see truespel.com phonetic spelling
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>>>
>>>
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>>
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