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Definition of "ablaut" []

  • A vowel change, characteristic of Indo-European languages, that accompanies a change in grammatical function; for example, i, a, u in sing, sang, sung. Also called gradation. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "ablaut" in a sentence
  • "They exhibit perfectly the features of quantitative ablaut, which is the older form."
  • "I doubt ablaut was still a productive system at the time that one could speak of 'Greek'."
  • "Hittite and Greek do show words with ablaut. βλιττω is difficult to explain any differently."