They represent a transitional shift from one vowel sound to another; for instance, a sliding from or an amalgamation of “a” to “e” for “ä.” This is an umlaut or a diaeresis, and can be found in languages such as French, German, Spanish, Danish, Catalan, Welsh, Dutch, Occitan, Galician, Luxembourgish and even in English ...

Who uses umlauts?

One interesting characteristic that the German language has is its letters. More specifically, the three additional letters of its alphabet make it quite unique. These additional letters are called umlauts and this article will explain what they are and how to pronounce them.

Does English use the umlaut?

Of course, in languages like English, umlauts are not common. They look foreign to us, and they are sometimes added to words to make them look foreign, too. For example, the Häagen-Dazs brand of ice cream is actually American. The name was invented to look and sound “Danish,” even though Danish doesn't use an umlaut.