| apophony |
| Definition: The varying of vowels to form grammatically related words. |
| Example:
(1) sing, sang, and sung (2) mouse and mice |
| Etymology: The word derives from the Greek apo, away from + phone, sound. |
| Oxford English Dictionary: Its first citation is from 1883: "The Germans call this … Ablaut, that may be rendered by apophony." (I. Sydow, German Conversational Grammar, p. 253) |