Other Definitions
ablaut (dict)
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AblautIn linguistics, the term ablaut (from German ab- in the sense "down, reducing" + Laut "sound") designates a system of vowel gradations in Proto-Indo-European and its far-reaching consequences in all of the modern Indo-European languages. The term "ablaut" was coined by the linguist Jakob Grimm. Ablaut can also be called apophony, vowel gradation, or vowel alternation. Indo-European had a characteristic general ablaut sequence that contrasted the vowel phonemes o/e/ə/Ø through the same root. Most philologists believe that the presence of laryngeals in the Indo-European roots, and their subsequent loss in most daughter languages, led to the development of several parallel ablaut sequences in Indo-European and its daughter languages. Ablaut results in variation of the vowels in related words and word-forms, and in many cases has taken on a grammatic function. For example, the vowel change in English from i to a to u in sing (present tense), sang (preterite), sung (past participle) is to be explained by ablaut. Verbs that display ablaut in English, and that do not form their preterites with a dental suffix like -ed or added -t or d, are called strong verbs. There used to be several regular classes of strong verbs in English, and many more of them; virtually all monosyllable verbs were strong verbs in Old English. Now, there are fewer of them; the force of analogy has remade many of them in the image of weak verbs, those verbs that form the preterite with a dental suffix. Sound changes like the Great Vowel Shift have also obscured some of the underlying regularity of the former classes of strong verbs. Now most of them are considered irregular verbs. Latin displays ablaut in verbs such as ago (present tense), "I drive"; egi, (perfect tense), "I drove". Ablaut is a semi-regular phenomenon that affects whole classes of verbs in Ancient Greek and Sanskrit. The ablaut is distinguished from the phonetic influence of a succeeding vowel, called umlaut. See also: reduplication; augment Related Topics
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