Seeing non-German speakers ommit umlauts and just use A, O and U, because they felt umlauts to be an unnecessary strain, has always annoyed me. In contrast to Röck Döts or heavy metal umlauts, German umlauts do have a use in the German language. They do not only change the sound of A, O and U, they often even distinguish words.
As this concept seemed to be very alien to especially American English speakers, I decided to create a video about aliens, or, how I later called it, Äliens.
Based on Steven Spielberg’s ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’, several A-shaped creatures await the landing of a space ship full of Ä-shaped aliens. Their native languages consist respectively of ‘ahs’ (like in ‘car’) and ‘ähs’ (like in ‘day’).
The initial idea was to create three videos: the Ä inspired by ‘Close Encounters’, the Ö based on Alien, with an Ö breaking out of an O’s belly and the Ü based on ‘E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial’, depicting the famous bicycle scene.
The video of ‘Close Encounters of the Umlaut Kind’ can be watched on my youtube channel.
Zwei Mädchen, die händeringend nach UFOs suchen, haben sich in einem größeren Tannenwäldchen böse verlaufen. Als durch das Geäst ein Lichtschein bricht und sie ohrenbetäubendes Getöse und Läuten hören, hüpfen sie überglücklich zu einer Öffnung in den Bäumen, um die Außerirdischen, die sie sich öfter wie Frösche vorgestellt haben, höflichst zu begrüßen.
