Ablaut

Ablaut is a German word used in linguistics to label 'the alternation of vowel sounds in related words belonging to the same paradigm or in etymologically cognate words'; 'the inflection of a word by changing one or more of its internal vowels'. It is a form of apophony and is known in English as 'vowel gradation'. (Umlaut is also a form of apophony but is entirely unconnected to ablaut.)

The Proto-Indo-European language was marked by the presence of movable pitch and stress patterns in related words. As these stresses moved, preceding, following or landing on the affected syllable a regular sequence of vowels was produced: short and long '-e-' and '-o-', the so-called e- and o-grades, and the reduced or zero grade in which the vowel disappeared completely. The phenomenon can be demonstrated in the changes of the second syllable in the various forms of the Ancient Greek for 'father':

• πατήρ [pater nominative singular: long -e- (because of the stressed vowel in the final syllable)]
• πατέρα [patera accusative singular: short e (because of the stressed vowel in the penultimate syllable)]
• πατρος‚ [patros genitive singular: the 'zero grade), because the syllable precedes the stress]

There is also an adjective in which the relevant syllable has become the third:

• • απάτορα [apatora 'fatherless' accusative masculine singular: short -o-, because the syllable follows the stress].

In the Germanic languages (with the exception of Afrikaans) the regularity of vowel gradation has survived most fully and obviously in the forms of the strong (irregular) verbs which could originally be organised into seven 'ablaut classes', though subsequent linguistic changes have caused verbs to switch classes or become (regular) weak (AWE's examples here are from English, and the groupings are from Quirk, et al (1985)):

• Class 1 drive drove driven (see Drive (irregular verb), an irregular verb in Quirk's class 7A
• Class 2 fly flew flown (see Fly (irregular verb), in Quirk's class 4C (b)
• Class 3 drink drank drunk (see drink, in Quirk's class 7A
• Class 4 steal stole stolen (see Steal (irregular verb), in Quirk's class 7A); come came come (see come, in Quirk's class 7B)
• Class 5 eat ate eaten (see eat, in Quirk's class 4B)
• Class 6 shake shook shaken (see shake, in Quirk's class 4B
• Class 7 fall fell fallen in Quirk's class 4B

Examples of vowel gradation in cognate words, sometimes across linguistic boundaries, are

• • stilt (in English), stout (Eng.) and stolz (Ger. = proud);
  • and (Eng.), und (Ger.), inti (Old High German) and ende (Middle Dutch);
  • garden (Eng.) and gird (Eng.).

Ablaut is not only an historical phenomenon. Consider the sound of the vowels in the related modern English forms atomic ('er-TOM-ick'IPA: /ə ˈtɒm ɪk/) and atom ('AT-om', /ˈæ tɒm); and definite ('DEAF-in-it' IPA: /ˈdɛf ɪn ɪt/), and define ('derf-INE', /dəf ˈaɪn/.

This page owes most of its information to Dr Alan Deighton, of the University of Hull.