Editing Indo-European ablaut (section)

== History of the concept ==
The phenomenon of Indo-European ablaut  was first recorded by [[Sanskrit grammar]]ians in the later [[Vedic period]] (roughly 8th century BCE), and was codified by [[Pāṇini]] in his ''[[Aṣṭādhyāyī]]'' (4th century BCE), where the terms ''{{IAST|guṇa}}'' and ''[[vṛddhi|{{IAST|vṛddhi}}]]'' were used to describe the phenomena now known respectively as the ''full grade'' and ''lengthened grade''.<ref name=Burrow21>Burrow, §2.1.</ref><ref>Coulson, p. xv.</ref><ref>Whitney, p. xii.</ref>

In the context of European languages, the phenomenon was first described in the early 18th century by the Dutch linguist [[Lambert ten Kate]], in his book ''Gemeenschap tussen de Gottische spraeke en de Nederduytsche'' ("Common aspects of the [[Gothic language|Gothic]] and [[Dutch language|Dutch]] languages", 1710).<ref>Cornelis Dekker, ''The Origins of Old Germanic Studies in the Low Countries'', p.342ff.</ref><ref>Reproduced in [https://books.google.com/books?id=5NY5AAAAMAAJ&dq=Lambert+ten+Kate++Gem%C3%A9%C3%A9nschap+tussen+de+Gottische+spraeke+en+de+Nederduytsche&pg=PA18 Google Books]</ref>

The term ''[[wikt:ablaut|ablaut]]'' is borrowed from German, and derives from the noun ''[[wikt:Laut|Laut]]'' "sound", and the prefix ''[[wikt:ab-|ab-]]'', which indicates movement downwards or away, or deviation from a norm; thus the literal meaning is "sound derivation ".{{sfn|Kluge|1963}}{{sfn|Harper|2001}} It was coined in this sense in 1819 by the German linguist [[Jacob Grimm]] in his ''Deutsche Grammatik'',{{sfn|Trübner|1939}} though the word had been used before him.{{efn|The earliest attestation known to the main etymological dictionaries is a sole reference in a 16th-century discussion of rhetoric in a handbook of legal language by Johann Peter Zwengel (''Neu Groß Formular und vollkommlich Cantzlei Buch'', Frankfurt am Main 1568, page 3b), where it apparently refers to a lowering of voice pitch: ''In bewegung des leibs sind warzunemen die theil der stim (dauon ablaut) sich darnach zubewegen'' (When moving the body it is important to adjust the voice (lowering it) accordingly).<ref>Reproduced in [https://books.google.com/books?id=xkFLAAAAcAAJ&q=ablaut Google Books]</ref> Zwengel's name was misprinted as Zweigel by Schoppe, and the error has been copied in etymological dictionaries to the present day.{{sfn|Schoppe|1923}}{{sfn|Kluge|1963}}{{sfn|Harper|2001}}}} In particular, the 17th-century grammarian [[Justus Georg Schottelius|Schottelius]] had used the word negatively to suggest that German verbs lacked the sophistication of the classics,{{efn|In 1673, Schottelius used both ''ablaut'' and the adjective ''ablautend'' in his ''Horrendum bellum grammaticale Teutonum antiquissimorum'' (Horrendous grammatical war of the ancient Teutons, e.g. page 43 or page 90).<ref>Reproduced in [https://books.google.com/books?id=K_9lAAAAcAAJ&q=ungleichfliessend Google Books].</ref> His usage comes closer to that of Grimm than Zwengel's, referring to a variety of phonemic irregularities, including in what he called "ungleichfließende Verben" (i.e. strong verbs). However the connotation is negative, implying degenerate sounds: ''Wil man nun diesen so alten Isländischen Uhrkunden Glauben beilegen, dan ergibt sichs, woher in Wandagischen Zeiten den Teutschen, und sonderlich dem Teutschen Pöbelvolke, sei das Maul so krum und voll geworden, und die Zunge und Lippen so scheef und knobbicht gewachsen, daß man so unartig, ablautend und übel sprechen und ausreden müssen'' ("If these old Icelandic documents are to be believed, it seems that in the time of the folk migrations the mouths of the Germans, and especially of the rabble, had grown so twisted and full and their tongues and lips so squint and knobbly that they had to speak and enunciate in such an unschooled, degenerate (''ablautend'') and distasteful manner", page 90). 
Schoppe compares this to words like "Abschaum, Abraum, Abwurf", where the ''ab-'' prefix is derogatory in the sense of "low-grade". Schoppe questions whether Grimm would have been aware of Schottelius's usage.{{sfn|Schoppe|1923}}}} but there is no hint of this disdain in Grimm or in modern scholarly usage.
In English, the term became established through the 1845 translation of [[Franz Bopp|Bopp's]] ''Comparative Grammar''.{{efn|A translator's footnote reads: "In our language, it seems to us that the uncouthness of such compounds as Upsound, Offsound, and Insound, could hardly be compensated by any advantage to be derived from their use; and we therefore purpose, in the course of this work, where any of these terms occur in the original, to retain them in their German shape. Of these terms, Ablaut and Umlaut are those which chiefly, if not alone, are used by our author."{{sfn|Harper|2001}}}}