ablaut

plural ablauts

1. countableuncountablehuman sciencesThe 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.First known use Mid 19ᵗʰ century.

   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.

   1920, Arthur Quiller-Couch, On The Art of Reading

   Synonyms: alternation

present singular third person ablauts · participle present ablauting · participle past ablauted · past ablauted

1. intransitivehuman sciencesTo undergo a change of vowel.

   This allomorph also causes the back vowel to ablaut to a low vowel.

   2012, Bernard Comrie, Zarina Estrada Fernández, Relative Clauses in Languages of the Americas: A Typological Overview, page 219

   3 more examples

   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.

   1983, Stephanie W. Jamison, Function and Form in the -áya-formations of the Rig Veda and ..., page 209

   What we find is that one cannot predict which members of V a given member of E will cause to ablaut

   1985, Michael E. Krauss, Yupik Eskimo prosodic systems: descriptive and comparative studies, page 241

   It is these co-opted verbs that tend to ablaut variably in the different Dakotan dialects and that forced morphological restructuring

   2006, Felix K. Ameka, Alan Charles Dench, Nicholas Evans, Catching language: the standing challenge of grammar writing, page 536

2. transitivehuman sciencesTo cause to change a vowel.