Umlauts: They’re easily the most metal punctuation there is! However, when it comes to Motörhead and Mötley Crüe, they’re used for show and not for function. It’s something that seems to mildly annoy Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson.
The topic of umlauts came up during a recent interview Anderson gave to Radio Bob! about the new Tull record RökFlöte. Anderson explained to the German outlet (as transcribed by Blabbermouth) that the album is pronounced “Rock Flute.” Also, the title was inspired by two different languages: Icelandic and German.
” … In a fanciful way I decided that perhaps the title should become not ‘Rock’ but ‘Rök’, which in old Icelandic means ‘destiny’, and ‘Flöte’, which is the German- and other Germanic-language pronunciation and spelling of flute, the instrument I play,” explains Anderson.
He further notes, “The umlauts are there for a legitimate reason because they are correct in the linguistic spelling, whereas the misappropriation of the umlaut at the hands of, for instance, Mötley Crüe or Motörhead ought to make you either laugh or get angry, depending on your point of view.”
For the record: An Umlaut is used over vowels in German and other languages to help modify the sound of a vowel in certain words. You can file this fact under “The More You Know.”
