anlaut

[ahn-lout]

noun

Linguistics.

plural

anlaute, anlauts 

1. initial position in a word, especially as a conditioning environment in sound change.

2. a sound in this position.

Word History and Origins

Origin of anlaut¹

1880–85; < German, equivalent to an- on + Laut sound, as noun derivative of anlauten to begin (with a given sound)

Example Sentences

She was widely connected and would certainly babble in the very city where his bitter rival Professor Anlaut had maintained that Lombard was West Germanic.

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