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Early ‘Umlaut’ Phenomena in the Germanic Languages

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 March 2026

Fausto Cercignani
Fausto Cercignani*
Affiliation:
University of Pisa
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Abstract

Not only the evidence of Gothic, but also that of North and West Germanic, speaks against the postulation of Proto-Germanic ‘umlaut’ allophones (§1). Furthermore, since even the results of the ‘earlier umlaut’ phenomena affecting */i e u/ in the various dialects point to the rise of allophonic variations in partly different environments, all the pre-literary vowel modifications produced by both vocalic and consonantal influences should be ascribed to the prehistory of the individual Germanic languages (§§2–3). The scarcity of forms with /e/ by a-umlaut of */i/ is explained through the assumption that the assimilation exerted by *[-a] on */i/ was widely resisted in order to avoid a merger of */i/ with */e/ (§2).

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Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 56 , Issue 1 , March 1980, pp. 126 - 136
Copyright
Copyright © 1980 by Linguistic Society of America

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