Umlaut may refer to:

Language and writing

Umlaut (diacritic) Umlaut () is a name for the Two dots (diacritic), two dots diacritical mark () as used to indicate in writing (as part of the letters , , and ) the result of the historical sound shift due to which former back vowels are now pronounced as front ...

, a diacritical mark that consists of two dots ( ¨ ) placed over a letter **

Metal umlaut A metal umlaut (also known as röck döts) is a diacritic that is sometimes used gratuitously or decoratively over letters in the names of mainly hard rock or heavy metal bands—for example, those of Blue Öyster Cult, Queensrÿche, Motörhea ...

, used in names of heavy metal or hard rock bands for visual rather than phonetic effect *

Umlaut (linguistics) In linguistics, umlaut (from German language, German "sound alternation") is a sound change in which a vowel is pronounced more like a following vowel or semivowel. The term ''umlaut'' was originally coined by Jacob Grimm in connection with th ...

, a sound change where a vowel was modified to conform more closely to the vowel in the next syllable; in particular: **

I-mutation I-mutation (also known as umlaut, front mutation, i-umlaut, i/j-mutation or i/j-umlaut) is a type of sound change in which a back vowel is fronted or a front vowel is raised if the following syllable contains , or (a voiced palatal approxi ...

, a specific type of umlaut triggered by a following high front vowel; in particular: ***

Germanic umlaut The Germanic umlaut (sometimes called i-umlaut or i-mutation) is a type of linguistic umlaut (linguistics), umlaut in which a back vowel changes to the associated front vowel (fronting (phonology), fronting) or a front vowel becomes closer to ...

, a prominent instance of i-mutation in the history of the Germanic languages ****Umlaut vowel, any

front rounded vowel A front rounded vowel is a particular type of vowel that is both front and rounded. The front rounded vowels defined by the IPA include: * , a close front-rounded vowel (or "high front rounded vowel") * , a near-close front rounded vowel (or ...

(because such vowels appeared in the Germanic languages as a result of Germanic umlaut) *

Two dots (diacritic) Diacritical marks of two dots , placed side-by-side over or under a letter, are used in several languages for several different purposes. The most familiar to English language, English-language speakers are the Diaeresis (diacritic), diaeresis a ...

, the "two side-by-side dots" diacritic, sometimes called an "umlaut", despite its having further linguistic uses, such as diaeresis and schwa.

Other uses

Umlaut (software) Umlaut is an open source front-end for a link resolver for libraries, which deals with advertising services for specific known citations. It runs as Ruby on Rails application via an engine gem. Umlaut accepts requests in OpenURL format, but has no ...

, an open source link resolver front-end for libraries * , Clinton McKinnon's experimental rock band from Australia * Lars Ümlaut, a character playable in the ''

Guitar Hero ''Guitar Hero'' is a series of rhythm games first released in 2005, in which players use a guitar-shaped game controller to simulate playing primarily lead guitar, lead, bass guitar, bass, and rhythm guitar across numerous songs. Players match ...

'' series of music video games * Ümlaut, a parodical anarcho-crust band featuring members of Catharsis, including

Alexei Rodriguez Alexei Rodriguez is a Puerto Rican drummer. He is known for his time in the metal band Prong (NYC/LA), Canadian heavy metal band 3 Inches of Blood (Vancouver, BC), metalcore band Walls of Jericho (Detroit, MI), as well as Trial (Seattle, WA) ...

* , an international management and engineering consultancy, before 2019 known as P3 group {{Disambiguation German words and phrases