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''A''-mutation is a metaphonic process supposed to have taken place in late Proto-Germanic (c. 200). ==General description== In ''a''-mutation, a short high vowel ( */u/ or */i/) was lowered when the following syllable contained a non-high vowel ( */a/, /o:/ or /æ:/).〔Gordon 1957, § 32.〕 Thus, since the change was produced by other vowels besides */a/, the term ''a''-mutation is something of a misnomer. It has also been called "''a''-umlaut", "''a''/''o''-umlaut", "velar umlaut" and, formerly, "Brechung".〔Lloyd (1966), p. 738.〕 (This last was Grimm's term, but nowadays German ''Brechung'', and its English equivalents ''breaking'' and ''fracture'', are generally restricted in use to other unrelated sound-changes which later affected individual Germanic languages)〔Collitz (1918), p. 322, footnote 2.〕 : * *''hurną'' > Old English ''horn'' "horn" : * *''wiraz'' > Old English ''wer'' "man" The high vowel was not lowered, however, if */j/ intervened between it and the following non-high vowel. An intervening nasal consonant followed by a consonant of any kind also blocked the process (and raised original */e/ to */i/).〔Campbell 1959, § 116.〕 : * *''gulþą'' > Old English ''gold'' "gold" : * *''gulþijaną'' > Old English ''gyldan'' "to gild" (with later i-mutation of ''u'' to ''y''). : * *''hundaz'' > Old English ''hund'' "dog" (German ''Hund'') : * *''swemmaną'' > *''swimmaną'' > Old English ''swimman'' "to swim" ''a''-mutation seems to have preceded the raising of unstressed final */o:/ to */u:/ in the dialects ancestral to Old English and Old Norse, hence in Old English the phenomenon is subject to many exceptions and apparent inconsistencies which are usually attributed to a mixture of paradigmatic levelling and phonetic context. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Germanic a-mutation」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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