Round 5: Tossup 20

Specific term required. Johann Schleyer’s inordinate love of this linguistic feature is often blamed for undermining his conlang Volapük. In languages like English, the “reverse” form of this modification occurs in the simple past form of some weak verbs in addition to the normal dental suffix. This feature is phonologically predictable, unlike a similarly-named process found in the verb forms “sing,” “sang,” and “sung.” Historically, this modification occurred when suffixes like “-iz” induced the (*) raising of front vowels and the fronting of back vowels, leading to plural forms like “geese” and “men.” This modification’s name means “sound alternation” in a language (10[1])that indicates it with an “e” after a vowel or a namesake diaeresis. For 10 points, name this modification indicated by two dots over the (10[1])“u” (10[1])in the German (10[1])word “über.” ■END■

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