A-mutation is a metaphonic process, supposed to have taken place in late Proto-Germanic (i.e. around 200 AD).

General description

In a-mutation, a short high vowel (*/u/ or */i/) was lowered when the following syllable contained a non-high vowel (*/a/, /o:/ or /æ:/).^[1] Thus, since the change was produced by other vowels besides */a/, the term a-mutation is something of a misnomer. It has also been called "a-umlaut", "a/o-umlaut", "velar umlaut" and, formerly, "Brechung".^[2] (This last was Grimm's term, but nowadays German "Brechung", and its English equivalents "breaking" and "fracture", are generally restricted in use to other, unrelated sound-changes which later affected individual Germanic dialects.^[3])

• • hurnam > Old English horn "horn"

• • wiraz > Old English wer "man"

The high vowel was not lowered, however, if */j/ intervened between it and the following non-high vowel. An intervening nasal consonant followed by a consonant of any kind also blocked the process (and raised original */e/ to */i/).^[4]

• • guldam > Old English gold "gold"

• • guld(i)janam > Old English gyldan "to gild" (with later I-mutation of u to y).

• • hundaz > Old English hund "dog"

• • swimmanam > Old English swimman "to swim"

a-mutation seems to have preceded the raising of unstressed final */o:/ to */u:/ in the dialects ancestral to Old English and Old Norse, hence Old English nosu "nose", snoru "daughter-in-law".^[5] It was no longer operative in the language of the earliest Scandinavian runic inscriptions; thus, we meet the form holtijaz in the Gallehus horn inscription.

In practice, the phenomenon is subject to many exceptions and apparent inconsistencies which are usually attributed to a mixture of paradigmatic levelling and phonetic context.

Dialectal variation

a-mutation is more evident in some Germanic speaking areas than others. It is widely found in Old High German, less so in other West Germanic languages and Old Norse.^[6] a-mutation is less extensive in Old East Norse (the precursor of Danish and Swedish) than Old West Norse (spoken in Norway and its colonies).^[7] There is no trace of it at all in Gothic, where Proto-Germanic */e/ and */i/ had fallen together, as had */o/ and */u/.^[8] Old Gutnish, at the eastern end of the territory where Old Norse evolved, resembles Gothic in this respect. But there is some suggestion that a-mutation may have been preserved in Crimean Gothic.^[9]

• Old English fugal : Old High German fogal "bird"

• Old English, Old Icelandic holt : Old Gutnish hult "copse, wood"

Variation is found within dialects too, and can be seen doublets such as Old English spora : spura "spur", spornan : spurnan "to spurn", cnocian : cnucian "to knock"; Old Icelandic fogl : fugl "bird", goğ : guğ "god", goll : gull "gold".

i > e

According to Campbell, a-mutation of i is limited, in Old English, to just three words (nest "nest", spec "bacon" and wer "man").^[10] Cercignani suggested another possibility: efen "even" < Proto-Germanic *ibnaz < Proto-Indo-European *imnos (cf. Latin imago).^[11]. More plentiful instances of */i/ > */e/ have been cited in other West Germanic languages,^[12] with Old High German showing the greatest number of examples, including doublets such as skif : skef.^[13] The mutation is rare in Old Norse, e.g. verr "man", heğan "hence", neğan "from below" in contrast to niğr "down(wards)",^[14] and perhaps jafn "even". Instances where a-mutation has failed to occur in Old Norse can mostly be explained as analogical forms,^[15] although a palatal stop /g/ or /k/ immediately preceding the /i/ in a short root syllable has a tendency to block, or reverse, the process.^[16]

u > o

While Proto-Germanic inherited both of the phonemes */i/ and */e/ from Proto-Indo-European, all instances of */o/ in the language arose from a-mutation of */u/, since Proto-Indo-European */o/ had already become Proto-Germanic */a/. a-mutation of /u/ is much more common than that of /i/, but also subject to many exceptions.^[17] In some dialects, the change may be blocked in labial contexts.^[18] Specifically, a tendency has been observed for the mutation not to occur next to initial or medial */f/ or */w/ in association with */l/.^[19] Other exceptions, in particular where there is disagreement between dialects, may be due to the word having once been a u-stem.^[20]

The effects of a-mutation are perhaps most noticeable in certain types verb (namely strong verbs of classes 2, 3 and 4) where o in the past participle alternates with u in the preterite plural. For example, Old English flogen "flown" < *fluganaz alternated with flugon "they flew" < *flugunş. Otherwise, where */u/ and */o/ would originally have alternated morphologically, the old Germanic languages had almost always generalised one vowel or the other throughout the paradigm, although there does occur in Old Swedish (especially in the laws of Östergötland) traces of regular alternation between /o/ and /u/ in accordance a-mutation, e.g. kona (nominative) : kunu (oblique) "woman".^[21] As can be seen from the examples above, a-mutation is also found in lexical alternations.

The diphthong */eu/

In the variety of West Germanic that gave rise to Old English, a-mutation did not affect the second element of the diphthong */eu/ (for which the earliest Old English texts have eu): treulesnis "faithlessness", steup- "step-" (Epinal Glossary 726, 1070); but in other branches of West Germanic */eu/ became */eo/ unless followed by */i/ or */w/, e.g. Old Saxon breost "breast", treuwa "troth".^[22] In Old Norse, */eu/ > /ju:/, without regard to a-mutation, e.g. Old Icelandic djúpr. In Old West Norse, the second element of the diphthong was lowered before a dental or alveolar consonant or /m/, transforming the diphthong to /jo:/, e.g. Old Icelandic bjóğa "to offer". In Old East Norse, /ju:/ was simplified to /y:/ after post-consonantal /r/ as early as the 10th century (and later after initial /r/ and post-consonantal /l/), e.g. brıtæ : Old Icelandic brjóta.^[23]

Effects of a single nasal consonant

Old English derives from a type of Germanic in which single */m/ had the same effect on preceding */u/ and */e/ as a nasal consonant followed by another consonant.^[24] The effect occurs in other West Germanic languages, though more erratically, and sometimes in Old Norse.

• Old Norse nema : Old English niman : Old Frisian nima, nema : Old Saxon niman, neman : Old High German neman "to take"

• Old Norse numinn : Old English numen : Old Saxon numan : Old High German gi-noman "taken" (past participle)

• Old Norse gumi : Old English guma : Old Saxon gumo : Old High German gomo "man"

a-mutation was also sometimes blocked before single */n/, again with much variation among dialects.

• Old English hunig (for older -æg) : Old Norse hunang : Old Saxon honig, -eg : Old High German hona(n)g

But single */n/ shows no tendency to raise a preceding */e/ to */i/ in any of the old Germanic languages.^[25]

Alternative ideas

A number of scholars have questioned the traditional model of Proto-Germanic a-mutation, in whole or in part. In particular, the rare a-mutation of */i/ to */e/ "as a P[roto]-G[ermanic] phenomenon has always been contested."^[26] Lloyd, for example, proposed an alternative explanation for all apparent instances of a-mutation of */i/; he suggested that "the partial overlapping in Germanic of the two phonemes /i/ (represented in all environments by [i]) and /e/ (with the allophones [e] and [i]) led to the occasional development of an e-allophone of i by systemic analogy".^[27] Cercignani, on the other hand, argued that "no 'umlaut' phenomena can be assumed for Proto-Germanic", preferring to ascribe these changes to "the prehistory of the individual languages."^[28]

Notes

References

• Campbell, A. (1959). Old English Grammar. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198119437.
• Cercignani, Fausto (1980). "Early 'umlaut' phenomena in the Germanic languages", Language 56:1, pp. 126-136.
• Collitz, Hermann (1918), "Early Germanic vocalism", Modern Language Notes 33:6, pp. 321-333.
• Gordon, E. V. (1957). An Introduction to Old Norse. Second Edition revised by A. R. Taylor. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198111843.
• Ottar Grønvik (1983). Die dialektgeographische Stellung des Krimgotischen und die krimgotische cantilena. Oslo, Universitetsforlaget.
• Kock, Axel (1898). "Der a-umlaut und der Wechsel der endvocale a: i(e) in den altnordischen sprachen", Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur 23, pp. 484-554.
• Kock, Axel (1890). "Några bidrag till fornnordisk grammatik", Arkiv för nordisk filologi. Ny följd. Andra bandet.
• Kluge (1889). "Vorgeschichte der Altgermanichsen Dialekte", Grundriss der germanischen Philologie, herausgegeben von Herman Paul. Strassburg, Trübner.
• Lloyd L. (1966). "Is there an a-umlaut of i in Germanic", Language 42:4, pp. 738-745.
• Sturtevant (1956). "The a-umlaut of the radical vowel i in Old Norse monosyllabic stems", Modern Language Notes 71:3, pp. 194-200.
• Wright (1917). Grammar of the Gothic Language. Oxford University Press.

See also

• I-mutation
• Germanic umlaut
• Vowel harmony

de:Brechung (Sprache)