SIL talk by Mike Putnam (Penn State University)

The syntax of umlaut – a cursory overview of the diachronic (& synchronic) development of plural in German(ic)

Umlaut in Germanic – both the historical process of conditioned back vowel fronting and the resultant synchronic morphological alternation – has been and remains a hotly debated phenomenon, both in terms of its historical development (Boutilier, 2019; Iverson & Salmons, 1996; Janda, 1998; Salmons, 1994, 2018) and its morphophonological representation in contemporary languages (Iverson & Salmons, 2004; Trommer, 2021; Wiese, 1996, and many more). Building upon joint research carried out with colleagues (e.g., David Nativg & Emmeline Wilson), I present a view of umlaut as a morphological component of German plurals. Tracing the core elements of its development from the Old High German-period until the present day, I make the case that umlaut can be understood as a single concatenative process (Trommer, 2021; Wiese, 1996). In this talk, I clarify the specific roles of syntax and phonology in the diachronic and synchronic development of plural umlauts in German (e.g., Bermúndez-Otero, 2012), discussing the role of syntax (and phonology) in determining umlaut and how this may change over time.

Suggested literature for those interested in or unfamiliar with the topic of the talk:

• Natvig, D., Putnam, M. T., & Lykke, A. K. (2023). Stability in the integrated bilingual grammar: Tense exponency in North American Norwegian. Nordic Journal of Linguistics, 1-34.
• Trommer, J. (2021). The subsegmental structure of German plural allomorphy. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, 39, 601-656.