Way, way back in a time before English had branched off from other Germanic languages, plurals were formed with an вЂ“i ending. English was also affected by the umlaut mutation.Д®ver wonder why the plural of вЂњmouseвЂќ is вЂњmiceвЂќ? Blame umlaut. (Start with вЂњahвЂќ for Г¤ and вЂњohвЂќ for Г¶.) 4.

Not working? Trying pinging back and forth: oo-ee-oo-ee-oo-ee-oo-ee вЂ¦ now freeze your tongue position in вЂњeeвЂќ and only move your lips back to вЂњoo.вЂќ Hold that u sound with your lips though! Good. You should feel the body of your tongue move forward and up in your mouth. Keep your lips completely frozen in u position while you try to say вЂњeeвЂќ with the rest of your mouth.

Now imagine thereвЂ™s an i-sound (an вЂњeeвЂќ) coming up. Mimicking that mutation process is a great way to learn to pronounce the umlaut. Technically, вЂњumlautвЂќ doesnвЂ™t refer to the dots, but to the process where, historically, a vowel got pulled into a different position because of influence from another, upcoming vowel. вЂњUmlautвЂќ is originally the name for a specific kind of vowel mutation. He called it umlaut from um (around) + laut (sound). In 1819 he described a sound-change process that affected the historical development of German. Jacob Grimm was not only a collector of fairy tales (along with his brother Wilhelm), but also one of the most famous linguists ever. The word вЂњumlautвЂќ comes from one of the Brothers Grimm.

How to write out a with umlaut