MeDeFe wrote:Actually an Umlaut is when the radical vowel in a word stem is changed when the word is inflected.
In Germanic languages (Nordic languages and German, probably also Dutch, but I'm no expert there) this usually does involve ü, ä and ö, but neither those letters, nor the sounds they represent, are themselves Umlauts. (That plural form pains me, correct as it might be)
A rather well-known example would be 'Frau' (eng. Mrs.), of which the diminutive form is 'Fräulein' (eng. Miss). 'au' is pronounced as the 'ou' in 'about', while 'äu' is pronounced as the 'oy' in 'boy'.
Another example is 'Bad' (eng. bath), plural form: 'Bäder'. The long aa-sound changes so it is a lot closer to the e-sound you find in words like 'reptile' or the 'ea' in 'feather', though not as short. (Think "reehptile")
Unfortunately there are no good phonetic equivalents with which to explain 'ü' and 'ö', but the principle should be a little clearer.
That's what an umlaut is, and that's what should have been substituted for the standard
u in the post in question. I don't quite see how that changes the fact you crudely referred to the umlaut as "dots".
You have furthermore capitalized the word "umlaut" in your posts. We do not capitalize our nouns in good Queen's English, unless they are proper nouns.