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Why do some words that are not inflected have an umlaut?



The 2019 Stack Overflow Developer Survey Results Are InWhy are German numbers backwards?Gödel but Noether?Why Mitternacht, not MittnachtCould you spell Dutch according to the German system?Why Ölberg and not Olivenberg?Why are some words spelled with “tz” if “z” already has the “ts” sound?Umlaut or not on “ihr” form of verbWhy are some countries ending with -ia in English written -ien in German while some are not?Are the words “sie/sein(e)” are related?Why is it “Tumoren” and not “Tumore”?










1















Umlaut marks are usually used to show that an inflection has occurred, that is the umlaut is a synchronic change. But some words with an umlauted character, such as Ärger, Hälfte, Käse, Lärm, März, Rätsel, Träne are not inflected forms of something else, so why do they have umlaut spellings?



Duden says that Bär was originally spelt with an e:




mittelhochdeutsch ber, althochdeutsch bero, eigentlich = der Braune, verhüllend Bezeichnung




but I don't think the "eigentlich = der Braune" explains the ä.



Ärger comes from ärgern




mittelhochdeutsch ergern, argern, althochdeutsch argerōn, gebildet zum Komparativ von arg und eigentlich = ärger, schlechter machen




Here the ä can be traced back to an inflected form (in this case a comparative) but it not clear when the spelling was changed from e.



So, even when umlauts are not indicating inflections in Modern German, it is clear that they do not all have the same explanation. So my question is:




Looking at umlauts that are not simply inflections, what are the various explanations, and when did these changes occur?











share|improve this question


























    1















    Umlaut marks are usually used to show that an inflection has occurred, that is the umlaut is a synchronic change. But some words with an umlauted character, such as Ärger, Hälfte, Käse, Lärm, März, Rätsel, Träne are not inflected forms of something else, so why do they have umlaut spellings?



    Duden says that Bär was originally spelt with an e:




    mittelhochdeutsch ber, althochdeutsch bero, eigentlich = der Braune, verhüllend Bezeichnung




    but I don't think the "eigentlich = der Braune" explains the ä.



    Ärger comes from ärgern




    mittelhochdeutsch ergern, argern, althochdeutsch argerōn, gebildet zum Komparativ von arg und eigentlich = ärger, schlechter machen




    Here the ä can be traced back to an inflected form (in this case a comparative) but it not clear when the spelling was changed from e.



    So, even when umlauts are not indicating inflections in Modern German, it is clear that they do not all have the same explanation. So my question is:




    Looking at umlauts that are not simply inflections, what are the various explanations, and when did these changes occur?











    share|improve this question
























      1












      1








      1








      Umlaut marks are usually used to show that an inflection has occurred, that is the umlaut is a synchronic change. But some words with an umlauted character, such as Ärger, Hälfte, Käse, Lärm, März, Rätsel, Träne are not inflected forms of something else, so why do they have umlaut spellings?



      Duden says that Bär was originally spelt with an e:




      mittelhochdeutsch ber, althochdeutsch bero, eigentlich = der Braune, verhüllend Bezeichnung




      but I don't think the "eigentlich = der Braune" explains the ä.



      Ärger comes from ärgern




      mittelhochdeutsch ergern, argern, althochdeutsch argerōn, gebildet zum Komparativ von arg und eigentlich = ärger, schlechter machen




      Here the ä can be traced back to an inflected form (in this case a comparative) but it not clear when the spelling was changed from e.



      So, even when umlauts are not indicating inflections in Modern German, it is clear that they do not all have the same explanation. So my question is:




      Looking at umlauts that are not simply inflections, what are the various explanations, and when did these changes occur?











      share|improve this question














      Umlaut marks are usually used to show that an inflection has occurred, that is the umlaut is a synchronic change. But some words with an umlauted character, such as Ärger, Hälfte, Käse, Lärm, März, Rätsel, Träne are not inflected forms of something else, so why do they have umlaut spellings?



      Duden says that Bär was originally spelt with an e:




      mittelhochdeutsch ber, althochdeutsch bero, eigentlich = der Braune, verhüllend Bezeichnung




      but I don't think the "eigentlich = der Braune" explains the ä.



      Ärger comes from ärgern




      mittelhochdeutsch ergern, argern, althochdeutsch argerōn, gebildet zum Komparativ von arg und eigentlich = ärger, schlechter machen




      Here the ä can be traced back to an inflected form (in this case a comparative) but it not clear when the spelling was changed from e.



      So, even when umlauts are not indicating inflections in Modern German, it is clear that they do not all have the same explanation. So my question is:




      Looking at umlauts that are not simply inflections, what are the various explanations, and when did these changes occur?








      etymology spelling umlaut middle-high-german old-high-german






      share|improve this question













      share|improve this question











      share|improve this question




      share|improve this question










      asked 6 hours ago









      David RobinsonDavid Robinson

      4607




      4607




















          3 Answers
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          2














          In most of your examples the vowel ä is an actual Umlaut, i.e. a changed vowel a or ā:




          1. Ärger relates to arg, https://www.dwds.de/wb/Ärger


          2. Hälfte relates to halb, https://www.dwds.de/wb/Hälfte


          3. Träne stems from Middle High German trān, Germanic *trahnu-, https://www.dwds.de/wb/Träne


          4. Käse stems from Latin cāseus, https://www.dwds.de/wb/Käse


          5. Lärm stems from Alarm, Italian all’arme ("to the weapons"), https://www.dwds.de/wb/Lärm

          So your hypothesis that the vowel ä indicates inflection, is just a part of the truth. It seems to indicate that the word stem has been a in earlier stages of the word.



          The exception Bär remains though. A hypothesis: Maybe the Umlaut indicates that the vowel has been long in Middle High German and is still long?



          At least, other words with the morpheme ber- seem to have the short vowel nowadays:



          • Berkelium

          • Berlin

          • Bermuda

          • Berlocke

          • Berme

          • Bern

          • Berserker

          • bersten

          • Bertha





          share|improve this answer






























            1














            I seriously doubt your premise of Umlaut marks. These two dots have been strokes before, which is simply Kurrent handwriting of the letter e. Older printed texts have an actual tiny e printed on top of a, u, o. And this is common practice even today: if no Umlaute are available on your computer, you should write ae, oe, ue instead.



            These are just five additional vowels German has (short ä is identical to short e). Or diphthongs, whatever you like.



            The sound changes in inflection and conjugation aren't special to the Umlaute, it's a general pattern and called Ablaut. This was already present in Proto-Indo-European.



            You can see this in German where no Umlaute are involved:




            rufen, er ruft, er rief



            saufen, er säuft, er soff



            bieten, er bietet, er bot







            share|improve this answer




















            • 1





              This seems to be a comment. As in English there are several Ablaute, as shown in sprechen, spricht, sprach, gesprochen. But one of these Ablaute is the set of sound changes that is typically associated with plurals, comparatives and a few other things. So whereas most of your examples are spelt phonetically, säuft is spelt using "Stammschreibung", that is, the au is retained with an extra mark (originally e, then ◌ͤ, then ¨). My point is that Bär does appear to come from *Bar or anything like it and Ärger relates to no modern word with a. This is what I am asking about.

              – David Robinson
              5 hours ago











            • The adjective arg is used in modern German, but not in all dialects and codes.

              – Janka
              5 hours ago











            • Bär is special because the ä-r is pronounced as Schwa-Tiefschwa.

              – Janka
              5 hours ago


















            1















            Umlaut marks are usually used to show that an inflection has occurred, that is the umlaut is a synchronic change.




            Umlauted vowels are less common than unumlauted vowels, but I think it's going too far to say that they are "usually" used to show inflection. The front rounded vowel sounds /yː/, /ʏ/, /øː/, /œ/ are regularly written with ü and ö in German, and they don't only occur in inflected forms of words with a base form in u or o. For example, the prepositions über and für are not inflected forms, and the verb stören doesn't have o in any of its inflected forms. Historically, these sounds derive in most cases from the phonetic process called umlaut, which seems to have been active at some point before the "Middle High German" period. You can find more information about the evolution of German vowels over time on the following web page: German vowels over time (by Helmut Richter). Ablaut is a separate and much older type of vowel alternation.



            In fact, all of your examples are with ä. The situation with ä is more complicated because, unlike ü and ö, it doesn't always represent a distinct sound of its own in the spelling of German words. It represents the same sound as the letter e in at least some cases. (The details vary depending on the word and the speaker.) So it is true in general to say that ä specifically is only used in modern spelling in words that are related in some way to words spelled with a. But the relationship does not have to be a matter of inflection: ä is also used in the spelling of some derived words. More details can be found in the answers to this Linguistics SE question: What was the original pronunciation of 'ä' in German?






            share|improve this answer

























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              3 Answers
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              3 Answers
              3






              active

              oldest

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              active

              oldest

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              active

              oldest

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              2














              In most of your examples the vowel ä is an actual Umlaut, i.e. a changed vowel a or ā:




              1. Ärger relates to arg, https://www.dwds.de/wb/Ärger


              2. Hälfte relates to halb, https://www.dwds.de/wb/Hälfte


              3. Träne stems from Middle High German trān, Germanic *trahnu-, https://www.dwds.de/wb/Träne


              4. Käse stems from Latin cāseus, https://www.dwds.de/wb/Käse


              5. Lärm stems from Alarm, Italian all’arme ("to the weapons"), https://www.dwds.de/wb/Lärm

              So your hypothesis that the vowel ä indicates inflection, is just a part of the truth. It seems to indicate that the word stem has been a in earlier stages of the word.



              The exception Bär remains though. A hypothesis: Maybe the Umlaut indicates that the vowel has been long in Middle High German and is still long?



              At least, other words with the morpheme ber- seem to have the short vowel nowadays:



              • Berkelium

              • Berlin

              • Bermuda

              • Berlocke

              • Berme

              • Bern

              • Berserker

              • bersten

              • Bertha





              share|improve this answer



























                2














                In most of your examples the vowel ä is an actual Umlaut, i.e. a changed vowel a or ā:




                1. Ärger relates to arg, https://www.dwds.de/wb/Ärger


                2. Hälfte relates to halb, https://www.dwds.de/wb/Hälfte


                3. Träne stems from Middle High German trān, Germanic *trahnu-, https://www.dwds.de/wb/Träne


                4. Käse stems from Latin cāseus, https://www.dwds.de/wb/Käse


                5. Lärm stems from Alarm, Italian all’arme ("to the weapons"), https://www.dwds.de/wb/Lärm

                So your hypothesis that the vowel ä indicates inflection, is just a part of the truth. It seems to indicate that the word stem has been a in earlier stages of the word.



                The exception Bär remains though. A hypothesis: Maybe the Umlaut indicates that the vowel has been long in Middle High German and is still long?



                At least, other words with the morpheme ber- seem to have the short vowel nowadays:



                • Berkelium

                • Berlin

                • Bermuda

                • Berlocke

                • Berme

                • Bern

                • Berserker

                • bersten

                • Bertha





                share|improve this answer

























                  2












                  2








                  2







                  In most of your examples the vowel ä is an actual Umlaut, i.e. a changed vowel a or ā:




                  1. Ärger relates to arg, https://www.dwds.de/wb/Ärger


                  2. Hälfte relates to halb, https://www.dwds.de/wb/Hälfte


                  3. Träne stems from Middle High German trān, Germanic *trahnu-, https://www.dwds.de/wb/Träne


                  4. Käse stems from Latin cāseus, https://www.dwds.de/wb/Käse


                  5. Lärm stems from Alarm, Italian all’arme ("to the weapons"), https://www.dwds.de/wb/Lärm

                  So your hypothesis that the vowel ä indicates inflection, is just a part of the truth. It seems to indicate that the word stem has been a in earlier stages of the word.



                  The exception Bär remains though. A hypothesis: Maybe the Umlaut indicates that the vowel has been long in Middle High German and is still long?



                  At least, other words with the morpheme ber- seem to have the short vowel nowadays:



                  • Berkelium

                  • Berlin

                  • Bermuda

                  • Berlocke

                  • Berme

                  • Bern

                  • Berserker

                  • bersten

                  • Bertha





                  share|improve this answer













                  In most of your examples the vowel ä is an actual Umlaut, i.e. a changed vowel a or ā:




                  1. Ärger relates to arg, https://www.dwds.de/wb/Ärger


                  2. Hälfte relates to halb, https://www.dwds.de/wb/Hälfte


                  3. Träne stems from Middle High German trān, Germanic *trahnu-, https://www.dwds.de/wb/Träne


                  4. Käse stems from Latin cāseus, https://www.dwds.de/wb/Käse


                  5. Lärm stems from Alarm, Italian all’arme ("to the weapons"), https://www.dwds.de/wb/Lärm

                  So your hypothesis that the vowel ä indicates inflection, is just a part of the truth. It seems to indicate that the word stem has been a in earlier stages of the word.



                  The exception Bär remains though. A hypothesis: Maybe the Umlaut indicates that the vowel has been long in Middle High German and is still long?



                  At least, other words with the morpheme ber- seem to have the short vowel nowadays:



                  • Berkelium

                  • Berlin

                  • Bermuda

                  • Berlocke

                  • Berme

                  • Bern

                  • Berserker

                  • bersten

                  • Bertha






                  share|improve this answer












                  share|improve this answer



                  share|improve this answer










                  answered 3 hours ago









                  jonathan.scholbachjonathan.scholbach

                  5,1741231




                  5,1741231





















                      1














                      I seriously doubt your premise of Umlaut marks. These two dots have been strokes before, which is simply Kurrent handwriting of the letter e. Older printed texts have an actual tiny e printed on top of a, u, o. And this is common practice even today: if no Umlaute are available on your computer, you should write ae, oe, ue instead.



                      These are just five additional vowels German has (short ä is identical to short e). Or diphthongs, whatever you like.



                      The sound changes in inflection and conjugation aren't special to the Umlaute, it's a general pattern and called Ablaut. This was already present in Proto-Indo-European.



                      You can see this in German where no Umlaute are involved:




                      rufen, er ruft, er rief



                      saufen, er säuft, er soff



                      bieten, er bietet, er bot







                      share|improve this answer




















                      • 1





                        This seems to be a comment. As in English there are several Ablaute, as shown in sprechen, spricht, sprach, gesprochen. But one of these Ablaute is the set of sound changes that is typically associated with plurals, comparatives and a few other things. So whereas most of your examples are spelt phonetically, säuft is spelt using "Stammschreibung", that is, the au is retained with an extra mark (originally e, then ◌ͤ, then ¨). My point is that Bär does appear to come from *Bar or anything like it and Ärger relates to no modern word with a. This is what I am asking about.

                        – David Robinson
                        5 hours ago











                      • The adjective arg is used in modern German, but not in all dialects and codes.

                        – Janka
                        5 hours ago











                      • Bär is special because the ä-r is pronounced as Schwa-Tiefschwa.

                        – Janka
                        5 hours ago















                      1














                      I seriously doubt your premise of Umlaut marks. These two dots have been strokes before, which is simply Kurrent handwriting of the letter e. Older printed texts have an actual tiny e printed on top of a, u, o. And this is common practice even today: if no Umlaute are available on your computer, you should write ae, oe, ue instead.



                      These are just five additional vowels German has (short ä is identical to short e). Or diphthongs, whatever you like.



                      The sound changes in inflection and conjugation aren't special to the Umlaute, it's a general pattern and called Ablaut. This was already present in Proto-Indo-European.



                      You can see this in German where no Umlaute are involved:




                      rufen, er ruft, er rief



                      saufen, er säuft, er soff



                      bieten, er bietet, er bot







                      share|improve this answer




















                      • 1





                        This seems to be a comment. As in English there are several Ablaute, as shown in sprechen, spricht, sprach, gesprochen. But one of these Ablaute is the set of sound changes that is typically associated with plurals, comparatives and a few other things. So whereas most of your examples are spelt phonetically, säuft is spelt using "Stammschreibung", that is, the au is retained with an extra mark (originally e, then ◌ͤ, then ¨). My point is that Bär does appear to come from *Bar or anything like it and Ärger relates to no modern word with a. This is what I am asking about.

                        – David Robinson
                        5 hours ago











                      • The adjective arg is used in modern German, but not in all dialects and codes.

                        – Janka
                        5 hours ago











                      • Bär is special because the ä-r is pronounced as Schwa-Tiefschwa.

                        – Janka
                        5 hours ago













                      1












                      1








                      1







                      I seriously doubt your premise of Umlaut marks. These two dots have been strokes before, which is simply Kurrent handwriting of the letter e. Older printed texts have an actual tiny e printed on top of a, u, o. And this is common practice even today: if no Umlaute are available on your computer, you should write ae, oe, ue instead.



                      These are just five additional vowels German has (short ä is identical to short e). Or diphthongs, whatever you like.



                      The sound changes in inflection and conjugation aren't special to the Umlaute, it's a general pattern and called Ablaut. This was already present in Proto-Indo-European.



                      You can see this in German where no Umlaute are involved:




                      rufen, er ruft, er rief



                      saufen, er säuft, er soff



                      bieten, er bietet, er bot







                      share|improve this answer















                      I seriously doubt your premise of Umlaut marks. These two dots have been strokes before, which is simply Kurrent handwriting of the letter e. Older printed texts have an actual tiny e printed on top of a, u, o. And this is common practice even today: if no Umlaute are available on your computer, you should write ae, oe, ue instead.



                      These are just five additional vowels German has (short ä is identical to short e). Or diphthongs, whatever you like.



                      The sound changes in inflection and conjugation aren't special to the Umlaute, it's a general pattern and called Ablaut. This was already present in Proto-Indo-European.



                      You can see this in German where no Umlaute are involved:




                      rufen, er ruft, er rief



                      saufen, er säuft, er soff



                      bieten, er bietet, er bot








                      share|improve this answer














                      share|improve this answer



                      share|improve this answer








                      edited 6 hours ago

























                      answered 6 hours ago









                      JankaJanka

                      33.1k22964




                      33.1k22964







                      • 1





                        This seems to be a comment. As in English there are several Ablaute, as shown in sprechen, spricht, sprach, gesprochen. But one of these Ablaute is the set of sound changes that is typically associated with plurals, comparatives and a few other things. So whereas most of your examples are spelt phonetically, säuft is spelt using "Stammschreibung", that is, the au is retained with an extra mark (originally e, then ◌ͤ, then ¨). My point is that Bär does appear to come from *Bar or anything like it and Ärger relates to no modern word with a. This is what I am asking about.

                        – David Robinson
                        5 hours ago











                      • The adjective arg is used in modern German, but not in all dialects and codes.

                        – Janka
                        5 hours ago











                      • Bär is special because the ä-r is pronounced as Schwa-Tiefschwa.

                        – Janka
                        5 hours ago












                      • 1





                        This seems to be a comment. As in English there are several Ablaute, as shown in sprechen, spricht, sprach, gesprochen. But one of these Ablaute is the set of sound changes that is typically associated with plurals, comparatives and a few other things. So whereas most of your examples are spelt phonetically, säuft is spelt using "Stammschreibung", that is, the au is retained with an extra mark (originally e, then ◌ͤ, then ¨). My point is that Bär does appear to come from *Bar or anything like it and Ärger relates to no modern word with a. This is what I am asking about.

                        – David Robinson
                        5 hours ago











                      • The adjective arg is used in modern German, but not in all dialects and codes.

                        – Janka
                        5 hours ago











                      • Bär is special because the ä-r is pronounced as Schwa-Tiefschwa.

                        – Janka
                        5 hours ago







                      1




                      1





                      This seems to be a comment. As in English there are several Ablaute, as shown in sprechen, spricht, sprach, gesprochen. But one of these Ablaute is the set of sound changes that is typically associated with plurals, comparatives and a few other things. So whereas most of your examples are spelt phonetically, säuft is spelt using "Stammschreibung", that is, the au is retained with an extra mark (originally e, then ◌ͤ, then ¨). My point is that Bär does appear to come from *Bar or anything like it and Ärger relates to no modern word with a. This is what I am asking about.

                      – David Robinson
                      5 hours ago





                      This seems to be a comment. As in English there are several Ablaute, as shown in sprechen, spricht, sprach, gesprochen. But one of these Ablaute is the set of sound changes that is typically associated with plurals, comparatives and a few other things. So whereas most of your examples are spelt phonetically, säuft is spelt using "Stammschreibung", that is, the au is retained with an extra mark (originally e, then ◌ͤ, then ¨). My point is that Bär does appear to come from *Bar or anything like it and Ärger relates to no modern word with a. This is what I am asking about.

                      – David Robinson
                      5 hours ago













                      The adjective arg is used in modern German, but not in all dialects and codes.

                      – Janka
                      5 hours ago





                      The adjective arg is used in modern German, but not in all dialects and codes.

                      – Janka
                      5 hours ago













                      Bär is special because the ä-r is pronounced as Schwa-Tiefschwa.

                      – Janka
                      5 hours ago





                      Bär is special because the ä-r is pronounced as Schwa-Tiefschwa.

                      – Janka
                      5 hours ago











                      1















                      Umlaut marks are usually used to show that an inflection has occurred, that is the umlaut is a synchronic change.




                      Umlauted vowels are less common than unumlauted vowels, but I think it's going too far to say that they are "usually" used to show inflection. The front rounded vowel sounds /yː/, /ʏ/, /øː/, /œ/ are regularly written with ü and ö in German, and they don't only occur in inflected forms of words with a base form in u or o. For example, the prepositions über and für are not inflected forms, and the verb stören doesn't have o in any of its inflected forms. Historically, these sounds derive in most cases from the phonetic process called umlaut, which seems to have been active at some point before the "Middle High German" period. You can find more information about the evolution of German vowels over time on the following web page: German vowels over time (by Helmut Richter). Ablaut is a separate and much older type of vowel alternation.



                      In fact, all of your examples are with ä. The situation with ä is more complicated because, unlike ü and ö, it doesn't always represent a distinct sound of its own in the spelling of German words. It represents the same sound as the letter e in at least some cases. (The details vary depending on the word and the speaker.) So it is true in general to say that ä specifically is only used in modern spelling in words that are related in some way to words spelled with a. But the relationship does not have to be a matter of inflection: ä is also used in the spelling of some derived words. More details can be found in the answers to this Linguistics SE question: What was the original pronunciation of 'ä' in German?






                      share|improve this answer





























                        1















                        Umlaut marks are usually used to show that an inflection has occurred, that is the umlaut is a synchronic change.




                        Umlauted vowels are less common than unumlauted vowels, but I think it's going too far to say that they are "usually" used to show inflection. The front rounded vowel sounds /yː/, /ʏ/, /øː/, /œ/ are regularly written with ü and ö in German, and they don't only occur in inflected forms of words with a base form in u or o. For example, the prepositions über and für are not inflected forms, and the verb stören doesn't have o in any of its inflected forms. Historically, these sounds derive in most cases from the phonetic process called umlaut, which seems to have been active at some point before the "Middle High German" period. You can find more information about the evolution of German vowels over time on the following web page: German vowels over time (by Helmut Richter). Ablaut is a separate and much older type of vowel alternation.



                        In fact, all of your examples are with ä. The situation with ä is more complicated because, unlike ü and ö, it doesn't always represent a distinct sound of its own in the spelling of German words. It represents the same sound as the letter e in at least some cases. (The details vary depending on the word and the speaker.) So it is true in general to say that ä specifically is only used in modern spelling in words that are related in some way to words spelled with a. But the relationship does not have to be a matter of inflection: ä is also used in the spelling of some derived words. More details can be found in the answers to this Linguistics SE question: What was the original pronunciation of 'ä' in German?






                        share|improve this answer



























                          1












                          1








                          1








                          Umlaut marks are usually used to show that an inflection has occurred, that is the umlaut is a synchronic change.




                          Umlauted vowels are less common than unumlauted vowels, but I think it's going too far to say that they are "usually" used to show inflection. The front rounded vowel sounds /yː/, /ʏ/, /øː/, /œ/ are regularly written with ü and ö in German, and they don't only occur in inflected forms of words with a base form in u or o. For example, the prepositions über and für are not inflected forms, and the verb stören doesn't have o in any of its inflected forms. Historically, these sounds derive in most cases from the phonetic process called umlaut, which seems to have been active at some point before the "Middle High German" period. You can find more information about the evolution of German vowels over time on the following web page: German vowels over time (by Helmut Richter). Ablaut is a separate and much older type of vowel alternation.



                          In fact, all of your examples are with ä. The situation with ä is more complicated because, unlike ü and ö, it doesn't always represent a distinct sound of its own in the spelling of German words. It represents the same sound as the letter e in at least some cases. (The details vary depending on the word and the speaker.) So it is true in general to say that ä specifically is only used in modern spelling in words that are related in some way to words spelled with a. But the relationship does not have to be a matter of inflection: ä is also used in the spelling of some derived words. More details can be found in the answers to this Linguistics SE question: What was the original pronunciation of 'ä' in German?






                          share|improve this answer
















                          Umlaut marks are usually used to show that an inflection has occurred, that is the umlaut is a synchronic change.




                          Umlauted vowels are less common than unumlauted vowels, but I think it's going too far to say that they are "usually" used to show inflection. The front rounded vowel sounds /yː/, /ʏ/, /øː/, /œ/ are regularly written with ü and ö in German, and they don't only occur in inflected forms of words with a base form in u or o. For example, the prepositions über and für are not inflected forms, and the verb stören doesn't have o in any of its inflected forms. Historically, these sounds derive in most cases from the phonetic process called umlaut, which seems to have been active at some point before the "Middle High German" period. You can find more information about the evolution of German vowels over time on the following web page: German vowels over time (by Helmut Richter). Ablaut is a separate and much older type of vowel alternation.



                          In fact, all of your examples are with ä. The situation with ä is more complicated because, unlike ü and ö, it doesn't always represent a distinct sound of its own in the spelling of German words. It represents the same sound as the letter e in at least some cases. (The details vary depending on the word and the speaker.) So it is true in general to say that ä specifically is only used in modern spelling in words that are related in some way to words spelled with a. But the relationship does not have to be a matter of inflection: ä is also used in the spelling of some derived words. More details can be found in the answers to this Linguistics SE question: What was the original pronunciation of 'ä' in German?







                          share|improve this answer














                          share|improve this answer



                          share|improve this answer








                          edited 27 mins ago

























                          answered 57 mins ago









                          sumelicsumelic

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