auslaut

See also: Auslaut

English

WOTD – 3 October 2023

Etymology

PIE word
*úd

Borrowed from German Auslaut, from aus- (prefix meaning ‘out’) + Laut (“sound”)^[1][2] (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱlew- (“to hear”)).

The plural form auslaute is borrowed from German Auslaute.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: ousʹlout, IPA^(key): /ˈaʊslaʊt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈaʊsˌlaʊt/
• Hyphenation: aus‧laut

Noun

auslaut (plural auslauts or (rare) auslaute)

1. (phonology) Synonym of coda (“the optional final sound of a syllable or word, occurring after its nucleus and usually composed of one or more consonants”).

   Antonyms: anlaut, onset

   Holonyms: rime, syllable

   Coordinate term: inlaut

   in auslaut ― at the end of a syllable or word

   • [1830, C. F. Becker [i.e., Karl Ferdinand Becker], “Of Articulate Sounds”, in A Grammar of the German Language, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, part I (Etymology); section I (Formation of Words), page 24:

     By the final consonant (Auslaut) of words, we generally, and unless the contrary be explicitly stated, mean the last consonant of roots or primary derivatives, and not that of the termination, which the word may have assumed in consequence of derivation or of inflection.]

   • 1845, F[ranz] Bopp, “The Verb”, in [Edward Backhouse] Eastwick, transl., A Comparative Grammar of the Sanscrit, Zend, Greek, Latin, Lithuanian, Gothic, German, and Sclavonic Languages. […], part II, London: Madden and Malcolm, […], →OCLC, paragraph 712, page 950:

     The Old High German subjunctives like salbôe, salbôês, salbôêmes, are unorganic, since the ê of salbôês, &c. (which is shortened in the auslaut) is a contraction of ai […], of which the a must belong to the class character.

   • 1860 January, Hermann Ebel, translated by William K[irby] Sullivan, “Art. III.—Celtic Studies. […] Translated from the German; with an Introduction on the Nature, Formation, and Classification of Stems, with Examples from the Greek, Latin, and Gothic.”, in The Atlantis: Or Register of Literature and Science of the Catholic University of Ireland, volume III, number V, London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, and Roberts; Dublin: John F. Fowler, […], →OCLC, part II (Celtic Studies), section 1 (On Declension in Irish), page 87:

     [J]ust as in German, we can determine by the vowel-changes in the stem the vowel of the ending, a circumstance of so much the more importance, as will soon appear, because, even in its oldest form, it is much more weakened in the auslauts than, for instance, the Gothic.

   • 1890, “Grammatical Treatise”, in George Allison Hench, editor, The Monsee Fragments. […], Strasbourg, France: Karl J. Trübner, →OCLC, page 118:

     In the inlaut before consonants and in the auslaut the long spirant is shortened to h: auh, bauhnenti, bisnuih, ih, queh, gaquihta etc. and in tehmot 17, 16 of Latin origin.

   • 1907 March 23, Leon Josiah Richardson, “The Eleven-syllable Alcaic”, in Horace’s Alcaic Strophe (University of California Publications, Classical Philology; volume 1, number 6), Berkeley, Calif.: University Press, →OCLC, paragraph 6, footnote 4, page 179:

     As a rule, it is less objectionable to throw into relief the anlaut than the auslaut of a foot. A break after the penultimate syllable of the foot has a tendency to render less objectionable a break after the auslaut.

   • 1928, John P[eabody] Harrington, “Introduction”, in Vocabulary of the Kiowa Language (Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin; 84), Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, →OCLC, § 2 (Vowels and Dipthongs), page 2:

     Examples also occur of the elision of the second element of the diphthong iʜ in word auslaut before ’ʜ; […]

Related terms

• ablaut
• umlaut

Translations

synonym of coda — see coda

References

1. “auslaut, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, July 2023.
2. “auslaut, n.”, in Collins English Dictionary.

Further reading

• syllable on Wikipedia.Wikipedia