Life With Umlauts, Part 1

Several people have asked about the meaning of the name of our blog. I’m sure there are multiple reasons why Lauren and I chose “Living with Umlauts” but two in particular will permit me to talk about my German experience so far. Reason Number One: we will be living in the land of umlauts for the next twelve months. Umlauts are the two little dots perched confidently atop the a, o, and u in many German words to indicate an altered vowel sound and thus an altered word meaning. (Side note: they should not be confused with the dieresis, which simply indicates the separate pronunciation of two adjacent vowels and is still seen in English, though rarely, in words such as naïve, coöperate, or the Brontë sisters). English, though a Germanic language, has managed to avoid these seemingly superfluous marks throughout the years by merely adding an “e” after the umlauted vowel or changing the vowel altogether. And for good reason. As an American, unless you are a member of a 1980s metal rock band, you are likely intimidated by those unnerving pairs of little linguistic eyes: just recall the last trip to IKEA when you had to ask the sales rep about the Flärke bookcase or that Stornäs dining table.

Living with umlauts means embracing them on a daily basis rather than cowering in fear of them. You just can’t escape the umlauts here. They’ve even earned a prominent place on your keyboard. Nor can you just ignore them. Umlauts are vastly important in the German language and the meaning of many words depends on you pronouncing them correctly. They make the difference between Mutter (mother) and Mütter (mothers); schon (already) and schön (pretty/beautiful); zahlen (to pay) and zählen (to count); and as I’ve recently learned, schwül (humid) and schwul (gay/homosexual). As you can imagine, refusing to pronounce umlauted vowels could result in some awkward moments.

Stay tuned for Reason Number Two.