ablaut

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)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.

   “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.”

verb

1. (intransitive)To undergo a change of vowel.

   “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.”

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

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

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

2. (transitive)To cause to change a vowel.