The Ablaut (Gradation)

The ablaut is a phonetic phenomenon found in Old Germanic languages. The essence of it is that some vowels appear in constant gradation in the grammatical forms of a word. This phenomenon is sometimes called grammatical gradation of vowels, it can be found in all the Indo-European languages, included Russian, The main type of gradation in Indo-European languages is represented by the alternation e (o) zero (absence of vowel). These variants are due to stress conditions: full stress brings about the high degree, viz. o, weakened stress-the medium degree, viz. e, and unstressed position-zero. The system of gradation in Germanic languages is best seen in the so-called strong verbs of the Gothic language.

In Gothic we find the following system of strong verbs:

Class Infinitive Past Past Second

Singular Plural Participle

I reisan ‘rise’ rais risum risans

II kiusan ‘choose’ kaus kusum kusans

III bindan ‘bind’ band bundum bundans

IV stilan ‘steal’ stal stēlum stulans

V giban ‘give’ gaf gēbum gibans

As can be seen from these forms, gradation is as follows:

Class Infinitive Past Past Second

Singular Plural Psrticiple

I ei ai i i

II iu au u u

III i a u u

IV i a ē u

V i a ē i

The system of gradation in OE has 5 rows and looks like the following:

1) ī-ā-ī rīsan-rās-rison;

2) ēo-ēa-u bēodon-bēad-budon;

3) i-a-u drincan-drank-druncon

4) r-ae-ae stelan-stael-staelon

5) a-o-o faran-for-foron

Mutation (umlaut)

By mutation, or umlaut, we mean a change of vowel caused by partial assimilation to the following vowel.

There are 2 kinds of umlaut in OE. The first is the Old German i-umlaut, which is characteristic only of some dialects of OE. This type is usually referred to as mutation.

Mutation brings about a complete change in vowel quality: one phoneme is replaced by another.

In OE i-mutation affects practically all vowels. Only short e and i have no connection with it: they had been dependent on the following vowel or consonant.

The mechanism of mutation is clear enough. If we take, for example, the change fullian > fyllan ‘to fill’, the essence of the process is this. The vowel u is articulated by raising the back of the tongue and simultaneously rounding the lips; the sound i (j) requires raising the front of the tongue. When the speaker begins to articulate the u, he at the same time anticipates the articulation needed for i, and raises the front of the tongue instead of its back. The lip-rounding, meanwhile, is preserved. The result is the vowel y. Similar explanation can be given of the other cases of mutation.

A complete list of mutation processes in OE is this.