In
linguistics,
umlaut (from
German "sound alteration") is a
sound change in which a
vowel is pronounced more like a following vowel or
semivowel. (ö ü) The term
umlaut was originally coined in connection with the study of the
Germanic languages, except from
Gothic, in which the process occurred prominently in the history of many of them (see
Germanic umlaut). While the common English plural is
umlauts, the correct German plural is
Umlaute.