Umlaut (diacritic)

Umlaut is a special mark made by two dots placed above certain letters, like ä, ö, and ü. It shows that the vowel sound has changed from an older back vowel sound to a front vowel sound. For example, the letter a might sound different when it has an umlaut, becoming like ä.

This change in sound happened a long time ago in some languages, especially in German. The umlaut helps people know how to say the word correctly when they read it.

Although the umlaut looks like the diaeresis mark used in some other languages, it serves a different purpose. The diaeresis tells us to say two vowels separately, while the umlaut tells us about a change in the vowel sound.

German origin and current usage

The word "Umlaut" comes from German and means "changed sound." In German, Umlaut refers to a change in how certain vowel sounds are made. The letters ä, ö, and ü show this change.

In German writing, when you see the Umlaut mark (two dots) above a letter like a, o, or u, it tells you to say the sound more toward the front of your mouth. For example, the sound a is said as e, o as ö, and u as ü. This helps show the correct way to say words in German writing.

History

Further information: Germanic umlaut

The Germanic umlaut is a special change in vowel sounds in German and other Germanic languages, such as English. In English, you can see this change in pairs like "man" and "men," or "foot" and "feet," though English spelling does not use the umlaut mark.

German vowel changes happened during the Old High German and Middle High German times. Back then, writers sometimes showed these changes by adding a small e above the vowel, like in the names Goethe, Goebbels, and Staedtler. In old German books, other letters were also written above other letters.

In old German handwriting and early printed books, the small e looked like two tiny dots. This is how the two dots over the vowel began to be used. Over time, this became the common way to show the vowel change in writing. Sometimes, special designs of the umlaut dots are made for artistic or space-saving reasons.

Printing conventions in German

When typing German on a keyboard without special keys for umlauts, people often write the letter followed by an “e”. For example, “Schröder” becomes “Schroeder”. This is important because dropping the dots changes the meaning. For instance, “schon” means “already,” while “schön” means “beautiful”.

In German, umlauted letters are not separate letters in the alphabet. When sorting words, umlauts are usually treated the same as the basic letters. However, if two words are the same except for an umlaut, the one with the umlaut comes second. For example, “schon” comes before “schön”.

In some places, like Switzerland, capital umlaut letters are written as two letters, like “Ae” for “Ä”. This is because Swiss keyboards are set up for both French and German.

Borrowing of German umlaut notation

Some languages have taken the special letters Ä, Ö, and Ü from German. These include Azerbaijani, Estonian, Finnish, Hungarian, Karelian, some of the Sami languages, Slovak, Swedish, and Turkish. They use these letters to show sounds similar to the ones in German.

In many of these languages, when the special letters cannot be used, people simply use the regular letters without the dots. For example, in Estonian, Swedish, Finnish, and Sami languages, the letters ⟨ä⟩ and ⟨ö⟩ make sounds like [æ] and [ø]. In Hungarian, they use a different kind of mark on the letters instead of the usual dots.

Use of the umlaut for special effect

See also: Metal umlaut

The two dots placed over a letter can be used to create special effects in names or branding, like in advertising. Some famous examples include Blue Öyster Cult, Motörhead, Mötley Crüe, and Häagen-Dazs. The Brontë sisters got their name from their father, who used the dots to change how the family name sounded.

Subscript umlaut

The International Phonetic Alphabet uses a special mark with two dots below a letter, called a "subscript umlaut." This mark shows a special way of speaking, called breathy voice. For example, in Hindi, it can be used to write the word for "potter."

The ALA-LC romanization system also uses this mark. It helps write some languages, like Persian, using the Latin alphabet. For example, a Persian letter can be shown as a Latin letter with this special mark below it. This mark has also been used for some Asian languages, like Red Karen.