Ablaut
noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The substitution of one root vowel for another, thus indicating a corresponding modification of use or meaning; vowel permutation, distinct from the phonetic influence of a succeeding vowel. countable, uncountable
"I declare to you that Literature was not written for schoolmasters, nor for schoolmistresses. I would not exchange it for a wilderness of schoolmasters. It should be delivered from them, who, with their silly Ablauts and ‘tendencies,’ can themselves neither read nor write."
- 2 a vowel whose quality or length is changed to indicate linguistic distinctions (such as sing sang sung song) wordnet
- 1 To undergo a change of vowel. intransitive
"This root must once have ablauted, given the associated nominal derivatives prthii- 'broad', prthivl- 'earth'. However, it does not ablaut at all in its verbal forms."
- 2 To cause to change a vowel. transitive
Example
More examples"I declare to you that Literature was not written for schoolmasters, nor for schoolmistresses. I would not exchange it for a wilderness of schoolmasters. It should be delivered from them, who, with their silly Ablauts and ‘tendencies,’ can themselves neither read nor write."
Etymology
Borrowed from German Ablaut (“sound gradation”), which is from ab- or ab (“down, off”), + Laut (“sound”). Ab is used here in the sense of “deviating, varying” as in Abgott (“god other than the true God”), Abart (“different sort, variety, anomality”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.