On Vowel Fronting in German

The fronting vowels 2

/aʊ/ /ɔy/ Frau (woman) Table 1 Fräulein (Miss) Under Umlaut-triggering morphological conditions, the phonological pattern is as follows:

• If it is ‘umlautable’, the rightmost vowel of the stem, and only the rightmost Motörchen (motor, diminutive) vowel of the stem, will be umlauted. (1) Motor (motor)

*Mötörchen

• schwa is invisible for this process

(2) Vater (father)

Väter (fathers)

a) Plurals

(3) Mutter Mütter (mother, mothers)

(4) Gast Gäste (guest, guests)

(5) Tag Tage (day, days)

(6) Hund Hunde (dog, dogs)

b) Suffixation

gnädig, but begnadigen (mercy, merciful, to reprieve) (7) Gnade

blutig, but vollblütig (8) Blut (blood, bloody, full-blooded)

mündig, but vollmundig (mouth, responsible, full-bodied) (9) Mund

c) Comparative (&Superlative)

(10) rund runder, *ründer (round) but Ründchen (round, N, dim.)

(11) dumm dümmer (dumb)

(12) glatt glatter or glätter (smooth)

d) Diminutive

(13) Topf Töpfchen *Topfchen (pot)

(14) Latz Lätzchen *Latzchen (bib)

(15) Regal Regalchen or Regälchen (shelf)

(16) Hund Hundchen or Hündchen (dog)

(17) Senator Senátorchen or Sena’törchen (senator)

(18) Tasse Tässlein *Tasslein (cup)

(19) Vogel Vögelein *Vogelein (bird)