umlautos

Umlauts are a type of diacritical mark consisting of two dots placed above a vowel. They are most commonly found in the Germanic languages, particularly German, where they are an integral part of the alphabet. In German, umlauts change the pronunciation of the vowel they modify. For example, 'a' becomes 'ä', 'o' becomes 'ö', and 'u' becomes 'ü'. These sounds do not exist in standard English pronunciation. The umlaut symbol itself, two dots, is sometimes referred to as a diaeresis.

Historically, the umlaut arose from a scribal abbreviation where a small 'e' was written above a vowel to indicate a modified sound, often a more fronted or higher pronunciation. Over time, this 'e' was simplified into two dots. In some languages, the umlaut also serves to indicate a grammatical change, such as in the pluralization of certain nouns. While the German language prominently features umlauts, they also appear in other languages like Swedish, Finnish, and Estonian, though their function and precise form can vary. In English, the term umlaut is sometimes used informally to refer to the two dots above letters like 'ü' in words borrowed from other languages, such as "naïve," though this usage is less common and often replaced by the term diaeresis.