The development of the Old High German umlauted vowels and the reflex of New High German /ɛ:/ in Present Standard German

Abstract

A critical reconstruction of the development of the Old High German umlauted vowels sheds light on the phonological history of various vocalic phonemes and in particular of /ɛ/ and /e/ as well as of /ɛ:/ and /e:/. The changes that affected the two pairs led to different results in the New High German Schriftsprache, in which today’s /ɛ:/ beside /e:/ in words with “long ä” (e. g. spät) is not an artificial vowel based on the spelling, but a historical variant with a phonological history behind it.