Editing Germanic umlaut (section)

== Description ==
[[File:Vowels of proto-Germanic and general change when i-mutated.png|thumb|The vowels of proto-Germanic and their general direction of change when i-mutated in the later Germanic dialects]]

Germanic umlaut is a specific historical example of this process that took place in the unattested earliest stages of [[Old English]] and [[Old Norse]] and apparently later in [[Old High German]], and some other old Germanic languages. The precise developments varied from one language to another, but the general trend was this:
* Whenever a [[back vowel]] ({{IPA|/ɑ/}}, {{IPA|/o/}} or {{IPA|/u/}}, whether long or short) occurred in a syllable and the front vowel {{IPA|/i/}} or the front glide {{IPA|/j/}} occurred in the next, the vowel in the first syllable was fronted (usually to {{IPA|/æ/}}, {{IPA|/ø/}}, and {{IPA|/y/}} respectively). Thus, for example, [[West Germanic languages|West Germanic]] {{lang|gem|*mūsi}} "mice" shifted to proto-[[Old English]] {{lang|ang|*mȳsi}}, which eventually developed to modern ''mice'', while the singular form {{lang|gem|*mūs}} lacked a following {{IPA|/i/}} and was unaffected, eventually becoming modern ''mouse''.{{sfnp |Campbell |1959 |pp=624–627 }}
* When a low or mid-front vowel occurred in a syllable and the front vowel {{IPA|/i/}} or the front glide {{IPA|/j/}} occurred in the next, the vowel in the first syllable was raised. This happened less often in the Germanic languages, partly because of earlier vowel harmony in similar contexts. However, for example, proto-Old English {{IPA|/æ/}} became {{IPA|/e/}} in {{IPA|*/bæddj-/}} > {{IPA|/bedd/}} 'bed'.{{sfnp |Hogg |1992 |p=113}}
The fronted variant caused by umlaut was originally [[allophonic]] (a variant sound automatically predictable from context), but it later became [[phonemic]] when the context was lost but the variant sound remained. The following examples show how, when final {{lang|ang|-i}} was lost, the variant sound {{lang|ang|-ȳ-}} became a new [[phoneme]] in Old English.

{|class="wikitable"
|+ Umlaut and final vowel{{sfnp |Campbell |2004 |p=23}}{{sfnp |Malmkjær |2002 |pp=230–233}}
! Process !! Language !! Singular !! Plural !! Singular !! Plural
|-
| Original form{{sfnp |Ringe |2006 |pp=274, 280}} || [[Proto-Germanic]] || rowspan="3" | {{lang|gem-x-proto|*mūs}} || {{lang|gem-x-proto|*mūsiz}} || {{lang|gem-x-proto|*fō(t)s}} || {{lang|gem-x-proto|*fōtiz}}
|-
| Loss of final ''-z'' || [[West Germanic languages|West Germanic]] || {{lang|gem|*mūsi}} || rowspan="2" | {{lang|gem|*fōt}} || {{lang|gem|*fōti}}
|-
| Germanic umlaut || rowspan="2" | Pre-[[Old English]]|| {{lang|ang|*mȳsi}} || {{lang|ang|*fø̄ti}}
|-
| Loss of ''i'' after a [[heavy syllable]] || rowspan="3" | {{lang|ang|mūs}} || rowspan="2" | {{lang|ang|mȳs}} || rowspan="3" | {{lang|ang|fōt}} || {{lang|ang|fø̄t}}
|-
| Unrounding of ''ø̄'' (> ''ē'') || Most [[Old English]] dialects || rowspan="2" | {{lang|ang|fēt}}
|-
| Unrounding of ''ȳ'' (> ''ī'') || [[Early Middle English]] || {{lang|enm|mīs}} 
|-
| [[Great Vowel Shift]] || [[Early Modern English|Early Modern]] and [[Modern English]] || {{IPA|/maʊs/}} ("mouse") || {{IPA|/maɪs/}} ("mice") || {{IPA|/fʊt/}} ("foot") || {{IPA|/fiːt/}} ("feet")
|}