[[OIcel phonology]]
# OIcel i-umlaut

The so-called i-umlaut was a mostly morphologized system of vowel [[apophony]] in OIcel.
The apophony is described in the table below[^norröne]

[^norröne]: 2013, [[@haugenNorroeneGrammatikIm2013|Norröne Grammatik im Überblick: Altisländisch und Altnorwegisch]], §17

| transition                                                                           | example                                                                                   |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| <em class="ling">u⁺</em> > <em class="ling">y</em>                                   | <em class="recon">flutjan</em> > <em class="ling">flytja</em>                             |
| <em class="ling">ú⁺</em> > <em class="ling">ý</em>                                   | <em class="recon">húsijan</em> > <em class="ling">hýsa</em>                               |
| <em class="ling">o⁺</em> > <em class="ling">ø</em>                                   | <em class="recon">sofiʀ</em> > <em class="ling"><em class="ling">søfr</em></em>           |
| <em class="ling">ó⁺</em> > <em class="ling">ǿ</em>                                   | <em class="recon">bótijan</em> > <em class="ling">bǿta</em>                               |
| <em class="ling">a⁺</em> > <em class="ling">æ</em> > <em class="ling">e</em>[^merge] | <em class="recon">gastiʀ</em> > <em class="ling">gæstr</em> > <em class="ling">gestr</em> |
| <em class="ling">á⁺</em> > <em class="ling">ǽ</em>                                   | <em class="recon">sárijan</em> > <em class="ling">sǽra</em>                               |
| <em class="recon">au⁺</em> > <em class="ling">ey</em>                                | <em class="recon">brautijan</em> > <em class="ling">breyta</em>                           |

[^merge]: By the 12th century short <em class="ling">æ</em> and <em class="ling">e</em> have merged, so in normalised orthography we see <em class="ling">ǽ</em> written as <em class="ling">æ</em>.

## Morphophonological i-umlaut

In the case of the [[OIcel u-stems]] and [[OIcel a-stems]] formed with the suffix <em class="ling">-il</em> we observe what may be described as **morphophonological i-umlaut**: 
a phonological rule which only holds in these morphological contexts, with few exceptions[^no2].
In the presence of an unstressed <em class="ling">i</em> the stressed vowel of the stem undergoes i-umlaut as described above.

[^no2]: 2013, [[@haugenNorroeneGrammatikIm2013|Norröne Grammatik im Überblick: Altisländisch und Altnorwegisch]], §22.2

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