''A''-mutation is a metaphonic process supposed to have taken place in late

Proto-Germanic Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. Proto-Germanic eventually developed from pre-Proto-Germanic into three Germanic branc ...

(c. 200).

General description

In ''a''-mutation, a short

high vowel A close vowel, also known as a high vowel (in U.S. terminology), is any in a class of vowel sounds used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of th ...

( or ) was lowered when the following syllable contained a non-high vowel (, or ).Gordon 1957, § 32. Thus, since the change was produced by other vowels besides */a/, the term ''a''-mutation is something of a

misnomer A misnomer is a name that is incorrectly or unsuitably applied. Misnomers often arise because something was named long before its correct nature was known, or because an earlier form of something has been replaced by a later form to which the name ...

. It has also been called "''a''-umlaut", "''a''/''o''-umlaut", "velar umlaut" and, formerly, "Brechung".Lloyd (1966), p. 738. (This last was Grimm's term, but nowadays German ''Brechung'', and its English equivalents ''breaking'' and ''fracture'', are generally restricted in use to other unrelated sound-changes which later affected individual Germanic languages.) :* *''hurną'' >

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

''horn'' "horn" :* *''wiraz'' > Old English ''wer'' "man" The high vowel was not lowered, however, if intervened between it and the following non-high vowel. An intervening

nasal consonant In phonetics, a nasal, also called a nasal occlusive or nasal stop in contrast with an oral stop or nasalized consonant, is an occlusive consonant produced with a lowered velum, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The vast majorit ...

followed by a consonant of any kind also blocked the process (and raised original to ). :* *''gulþą'' > Old English ''gold'' "gold" :* *''gulþijaną'' > Old English ''gyldan'' "to gild" (with later

i-mutation I-mutation (also known as umlaut, front mutation, i-umlaut, i/j-mutation or i/j-umlaut) is a type of sound change in which a back vowel is fronted or a front vowel is raised if the following syllable contains , or (a voiced palatal approxi ...

of ''u'' to ''y''). :* *''hundaz'' > Old English ''hund'' "dog" (German ''Hund'') :* *''swemmaną'' > *''swimmaną'' > Old English ''swimman'' "to swim" ''a''-mutation seems to have preceded the raising of unstressed final to in the dialects ancestral to Old English and Old Norse, hence in Old English the phenomenon is subject to many exceptions and apparent inconsistencies which are usually attributed to a mixture of paradigmatic levelling and phonetic context.

Dialectal variation

''a''-mutation is more evident in some Germanic languages than others. It is widely found in

Old High German Old High German (OHG; german: Althochdeutsch (Ahd.)) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally covering the period from around 750 to 1050. There is no standardised or supra-regional form of German at this period, and Old High ...

, less so in other

West Germanic languages The West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three branches of the Germanic languages, Germanic family of languages (the others being the North Germanic languages, North Germanic and the extinct East Germanic languages, East Germanic ...

and

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...

. ''a''-mutation is less extensive in Old East Norse (the precursor of

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

and

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

) than Old West Norse (spoken in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

and its colonies). There is no trace of it at all in

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

, where the distinction between the short high and mid vowels had become allophonic (Proto-Germanic and merged).

Old Gutnish Old Gutnish or Old Gotlandic was a North Germanic language spoken on the Baltic island of Gotland. It shows sufficient differences from the Old West Norse and Old East Norse dialects that it is considered to be a separate branch. While vastly ...

, at the eastern end of the territory where Old Norse evolved, resembles Gothic in this respect. But there is some suggestion that ''a''-mutation may have been preserved in

Crimean Gothic Crimean Gothic was an East Germanic language spoken by the Crimean Goths in some isolated locations in Crimea until the late 18th century. Attestation The existence of a Germanic dialect in Crimea is noted in a number of sources from the 9th ce ...

. :* Old English ''fugol'', ''fugel'' : Old High German ''fogal'' "bird" :* Old Gutnish ''hult'' "copse, wood" : Old English, Old Icelandic ''holt'' Variation is found within dialects too with doublets such as Old English ''spora'' : ''spura'' "spur", : "to spurn", : "to knock"; Old Icelandic : "bird", ''goð'' : ''guð'' "god", : "gold".

''i'' > ''e''

According to Campbell, ''a''-mutation of ''i'' is limited in Old English to just three words: ''nest'' "nest", ''spec'' "bacon", and ''wer'' "man".Campbell 1959, § 114 (b). More plentiful instances of > have been cited in other West Germanic languages, with Old High German showing the greatest number of examples, including doublets such as ''skif'' : ''skef'' "ship". The mutation is rare in Old Norse, e.g. ''verr'' "man", ''heðan'' "hence", ''neðan'' "from below" in contrast to ''niðr'' "down(wards)" and perhaps ''jafn'' "even". Instances where ''a''-mutation has failed to occur in Old Norse can mostly be explained as analogical forms, although a palatal stop or immediately preceding the in a short root syllable has a tendency to block or reverse the process.

''u'' > ''o''

While Proto-Germanic inherited both of the phonemes and from

Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo-E ...

, all instances of in the later languages arose from ''a''-mutation of , since Proto-Indo-European had already become Proto-Germanic . ''a''-mutation of is much more common than that of but also subject to many exceptions.Campbell 1959, § 115. In some dialects, the change may be blocked in

labial The term ''labial'' originates from '' Labium'' (Latin for "lip"), and is the adjective that describes anything of or related to lips, such as lip-like structures. Thus, it may refer to: * the lips ** In linguistics, a labial consonant ** In zoolog ...

contexts. Specifically, a tendency has been observed for the mutation not to occur next to initial or medial or in association with .Kluge (1889) p. 122-23, and Anmerkung 6. Other exceptions, in particular where there is disagreement between dialects, may be due to the word having once been a ''u''-stem. Most dialects of late

Old Dutch In linguistics, Old Dutch (Dutch: Oudnederlands) or Old Low Franconian (Dutch: Oudnederfrankisch) is the set of Franconian dialects (i.e. dialects that evolved from Frankish) spoken in the Low Countries during the Early Middle Ages, from aroun ...

underwent a merger of and , so that in Middle and Modern Dutch only appears, eliminating all traces of a-mutation of . The effects of ''a''-mutation are perhaps most noticeable in certain verb types, e.g. strong verbs of classes 2, 3 and 4, where ''o'' in the past participle alternates with ''u'' in the

preterite The preterite or preterit (; abbreviated or ) is a grammatical tense or verb form serving to denote events that took place or were completed in the past; in some languages, such as Spanish, French, and English, it is equivalent to the simple pas ...

plural. For example, Old English ''flogen'' "flown" < *''fluganaz'' alternated with ''flugon'' "they flew" < *''flugun''. Otherwise, where and would originally have alternated morphologically, the old Germanic languages had almost always generalised one vowel or the other throughout the paradigm, although there does occur in Old Swedish (especially in the laws of

Östergötland Östergötland (; English exonym: East Gothland) is one of the traditional provinces of Sweden (''landskap'' in Swedish) in the south of Sweden. It borders Småland, Västergötland, Närke, Södermanland and the Baltic Sea. In older English li ...

) traces of regular alternation between and in line with ''a''-mutation, e.g. ''kona'' ( subj.) : ''kunu'' ( obj.) "woman". As can be seen from the examples above, ''a''-mutation is also found in

lexical Lexical may refer to: Linguistics * Lexical corpus or lexis, a complete set of all words in a language * Lexical item, a basic unit of lexicographical classification * Lexicon, the vocabulary of a person, language, or branch of knowledge * Lex ...

alternations.

The diphthong

In the West Germanic variety that gave rise to Old English, ''a''-mutation did not affect the second element of the diphthong (for which the earliest Old English texts have ''eu''): ''treulesnis'' "faithlessness", ''steup-'' "step-" (Epinal Glossary 726, 1070); but in other branches of West Germanic eventually became unless followed by , e.g.

Old Saxon Old Saxon, also known as Old Low German, was a Germanic language and the earliest recorded form of Low German (spoken nowadays in Northern Germany, the northeastern Netherlands, southern Denmark, the Americas and parts of Eastern Europe). It i ...

''breost'' "breast" vs. ''treuwa'' "fidelity". In most variants of Old Norse, > > or , without regard to ''a''-mutation, e.g. Old Icelandic ''djúpr''.

Effects of a single nasal consonant

Old English derives from a type of Germanic in which single had the same effect on preceding and as a nasal stop followed by another consonant.Campbell 1959, § 117. The effect occurs in other West Germanic languages, though more erratically, and sometimes in Old Norse. :* Old Norse ''nema'', Old High German ''neman'' :

Old Frisian Old Frisian was a West Germanic language spoken between the 8th and 16th centuries along the North Sea coast, roughly between the mouths of the Rhine and Weser rivers. The Frisian settlers on the coast of South Jutland (today's Northern Friesl ...

''nima'', ''nema'', Old Saxon ''niman'', ''neman'' : Old English ''niman'' "to take" :* Old High German ''gi-noman'', Old Frisian ''nomen'' : Old Norse ''numinn'', Old English ''numen'', Old Saxon ''numan'' "taken" (past

participle In linguistics, a participle () (from Latin ' a "sharing, partaking") is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from ...

) :* Old High German ''gomo'' "man", Old Frisian ''gomo'' : Old Norse ''gumi'', Old English ''guma'', Old Saxon ''gumo'' ''a''-mutation was also sometimes blocked before single , again with much variation among languages. :* Old Saxon ''honig'', ''-eg'', Old High German : Old English (for older ''-æg''), Old Frisian ''hunig'', Old Norse ''hunang''

Alternative ideas

A number of scholars have questioned the traditional model of Proto-Germanic ''a''-mutation in whole or in part. In particular, the rare ''a''-mutation of to "as a P

oto Oto, Ōtō, or OTO may refer to: People * Oto (name), including a list of people with the name *The Otoe tribe (also spelled Oto), a Native American people Places *Oto, Spain, a village in the Valle de Broto, in Huesca, Aragon * Otorohanga, a to ...

G rmanicphenomenon has always been contested." Lloyd, for example, proposed an alternative explanation for all apparent instances of ''a''-mutation of ; he suggested that "the partial overlapping in Germanic of the two phonemes (represented in all environments by ) and (with the allophones and ) led to the occasional development of an ''e''-allophone of ''i'' by systemic analogy". Cercignani, on the other hand, argued that "no 'umlaut' phenomena can be assumed for Proto-Germanic", preferring to ascribe these changes to "the prehistory of the individual languages."Cercignani (1980), p. 129.

Notes

References

* Campbell, A. (1959). ''Old English Grammar.'' Oxford University Press. . * Cercignani, Fausto (1980). "Early 'umlaut' phenomena in the Germanic languages", ''Language'' 56:1, pp. 126–136. * Collitz, Hermann (1918), "Early Germanic vocalism", ''Modern Language Notes'' 33:6, pp. 321–333. * Gordon, E. V. (1957). ''An Introduction to Old Norse.'' Second Edition revised by A. R. Taylor. Oxford University Press. . * Grønvik, Ottar (1983). ''Die dialektgeographische Stellung des Krimgotischen und die krimgotische cantilena.'' Oslo, Universitetsforlaget. * Kock, Axel (1898). "Der ''a''-umlaut und der Wechsel der endvocale ''a'': ''i''(''e'') in den altnordischen sprachen", ''Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur 23'', pp. 484–554. * Kock, Axel (1890). "Några bidrag till fornnordisk grammatik", ''Arkiv för nordisk filologi.'' Ny följd. Andra bandet. * Kluge (1889). "Vorgeschichte der Altgermanichsen Dialekte", ''Grundriss der germanischen Philologie'', herausgegeben von Herman Paul. Strassburg, Trübner. * Lloyd L. (1966). "Is there an ''a''-umlaut of ''i'' in Germanic?", ''Language'' 42:4, pp. 738–745. * Sturtevant (1956). "The ''a''-umlaut of the radical vowel ''i'' in Old Norse monosyllabic stems", ''Modern Language Notes'' 71:3, pp. 194–200. * Wright (1917). ''Grammar of the Gothic Language.'' Oxford University Press.