Ä, ö, ü – apart from being exercises for the mouth, what are these funny looking letters used for? They are called “umlaute” (often “umlauts” in their anglicized form), i.e. vowels with diacritical marks (the two dots) above them. They are distinct vowels of their own, so ä should not be confused with a, ö should not be confused with o and ü not with u.
Doing so will change the meaning of a word; for example, length would become long by confusing “Länge” with “lange.” Umlautes are useful when remembering word connections or word families. The plural of ‘Hand’ (hand) is ‘Hände’; ‘Händchen’ is the diminutive (a small hand) and ‘behände’ means agile (as in with quick hands). Finding these connections or more word pairs is a good exercise when learning German and getting to know word structure and derivates.
Pronunciation of German Umlauts
There is no easy way out – when pronouncing umlauts, one has to pucker; umlauts are pronounced in the front of the oral cavity. Probably the easiest to pronounce is ä because it is similar to the ‘a’ in bad. Ü will be easier for those who know French as it is similar to the ‘ue’ in rue. Ö needs full mouth action, something like saying the ‘ea’ in early with fully rounded lips.
The diphthong äu (and eu for that matter) is pronounced like the ‘oi’ in noise. Once mastered, saying ä, ö, ü repeatedly and in quick succession (preferably in front of the mirror) is not only an excellent exercise for the facial muscles but also a great remedy for a bad mood.
Historical Development of the Umlauts in Germany
The first e-umlauts as used today showed up in Middle High German manuscripts (roughly between 1100 and 1500). Today’s vowels with diacritical marks developed from a small ‘e’ that was written on top of a, o or u. In those times, ‘e’ was written like two short, connected vertical lines that almost looked like an ‘n’ (see picture). Simplification turned those into two short slashes (“) and finally into two dots. Any good Duden or dictionary will have more information.
German Umlaut Usage Today
Umlauts have a long history and can by no means be done away with. However, there are situations when their spelled-out form has to be used. That is ae for ä, oe for ö, ue for ü and aeu for äu. URLs and email addresses would not work with umlauts and for that matter, neither with the unique German letter ß.
Good search engines, however, should recognize both König and Koenig (‘king’), for example. Careful with first and family names though - Jürgen, for example, is a popular German first name, Jurgen is not. Same with last names – Michael Müller might be a different person than Michael Mueller or even Michael Muller.
Typing German Umlauts Fast
When typing text in German and inserting umlauts as symbols from the menu, note down the keyboard shortcuts mentioned there. Learning those Alt codes for the umlauts will speed up typing German words. Here’s a hint: Remember the ones for the lowercase letters - ä, ö and ü - first as they are needed more frequently.
In a nutshell, umlauts
- are distinct vowels with diacritical marks,
- illustrate word families, word pairs and derivates,
- are pronounced towards the front of the oral cavity and with rounded lips,
- have developed from a superscript 'e' above the vowel and
- are transcribed as vowel + e when necessary.
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