What Is Umlaut And How Do You Use It?
Góðan daginn!
This post answers the questions: "What is umlaut?" and "How do you use umlaut?"
What Is umlaut
Umlaut is a phenomenon present in Germanic languages that involves changes in the vowels within words. This phenomenon is tied to historical trends within the Germanic language family, whereby vowels in unstressed syllables influenced the vowels in stressed syllables in order to make words easier to pronounce.
Several distinct types of umlaut exist, each named after the vowel sounds found in the unstressed syllables responsible for the changes. For instance, U-umlaut derives its name from the influence of a /u/ sound present within an unstressed syllable.
Umlauts are rooted in historical developments and did not occur spontaneously. The I-umlaut, also known as the Germanic Umlaut, emerged around 500 AD and impacted words across various Germanic languages of that era. Over time, the productivity of the I-umlaut diminished. Nevertheless, because Icelandic evolved from a Germanic language of that era, its effects endure within modern Icelandic.
There are two main types of umlaut to be familiar with in Icelandic: U-umlaut and I-umlaut.
U-umlaut
U-umlaut is fairly straightforward.
Rule: An A in the stem mutates into an ö when the next syllable contains a u. If there are two as in the stem, the first becomes an ö, and the second becomes a u.
U-umlaut is why, in many verb conjugations, you can see a change from an a to an ö in the first-person plural. The ending -um contains a u, so the A in the stem changes to an ö.
| Present: að baka (acc) (-aði) | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| First-person | ég baka | við bökum |
| Second-person | þú bakar | þið bakið |
| Third-person | hann/hún/það bakar | þeir/þær/þau baka |
Tip: U-umlaut is extremely common in first-person plural conjugations and dative plural declensions because of the "-um" endings of these patterns.
Things to know about U-umlaut
Since U-umlaut occurred around 700 AD, word forms that underwent a shift from ending in -r in Old Norse to ending in -ur in Modern Icelandic do not experience U-umlaut because that u was added after the umlaut shift ended. Furthermore, certain word forms exhibit U-umlaut seemingly without clear justification. This mainly arises when there used to be a u in the Old Norse form, even though it is absent in modern Icelandic.
An example of these two additional rules in action is the adjective glaður. Glaður used to be glaðr in Old Norse before a u was added in that ending to make the word easier to pronounce. U-umlaut was active before that u was inserted. As a result, no U-umlaut is present in the form glaður. The feminine singular form of that word is glöð because the Proto-Norse form used to be glaðu. In modern Icelandic, that u has been lost, but the effect of the U-umlaut remains, leaving modern Icelandic with glöð.
While U-umlaut is no longer an active linguistical shift, many new words introduced to the language often adhere to the pattern through analogy.
I-umlaut
I-umlaut is much more complex than U-umlaut and concerns a much larger number of vowels.
The rules are as follows:
- a -> e
- au -> ey
- á -> æ
- e -> i
- jú and jó -> ý
- o -> e and y
- ó -> æ
- u -> y
- ú -> ý
In contrast to U-umlaut, where most of the original us that triggered the umlaut still exist, most of the is that instigated I-umlaut have vanished. These is were present in the Proto-Germanic endings, but they no longer persist in modern Icelandic. Even though they are no longer present, their historical presence still causes changes in the world.
Below, see the declension for the noun bók - (book).
| Bók (-ar, -ur) | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | bók | bækur |
| Accusative | bók | bækur |
| Dative | bók | bókum |
| Genitive | bókar | bóka |
Within this declension, it is easy to see that the nominative and accusative plural forms changed their vowels from ó to æ, aligning with the I-umlaut rules. However, this transformation is not mirrored in the remaining forms.
These forms experienced I-umlaut because they contained the letter i in their endings (*Bōkiz) in Proto-Germanic at the time that I-umlaut was an active change, while the other forms did not. As you can see by the rules, ō, which is now ó, changes to æ.
Things to know about I-umlaut
I-umlaut is very prevalent in the conjugation of strong verbs, such as að fara, but only in the singular. It never occurs in the plural.
- fara -> fer
I-umlaut and it occurs throughout the past subjunctive, in both numbers.
- vera -> væri
I-umlaut is very common in the nominative and accusative plural of feminine nouns.
- bók -> bækur
I-umlaut is very common in the dative singular of masculine nouns.
- dagur -> degi
While it is ultimately impossible and unproductive to know if a word had an i in the ending when Germanic Umlaut was active or if the forms changed by analogy, knowing what caused this umlaut to happen can be very helpful in demystifying umlaut inflection.
Both umlauts together?
Since U and I-umlaut are separate phenomena, it is entirely possible for both U-umlaut and I-umlaut to affect the same word.
Below, see the present tense conjugation of the verb að fara.
| Present: að fara | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| First-person | fer | förum |
| Second-person | ferð | farið |
| Third-person | fer | fara |
In the second-person and third-person singular forms, the vowel a has changed to an e, following the rule of I-umlaut because these forms' endings contained an i during the time I-umlaut was an active change (*Faridi and *Farizi). The first-person singular form was also changed by analogy to match the third-person.
The first-person plural form changed its vowel from an a to an ö because of U-umlaut.