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Mayan languages
Anatolia, Caucasus, Iran, Mesopotamia

about

Gothic

is the oldest Germanic language attested in a sizable text corpus. At the same time, it is the only East Germanic language of which more than a few words, all of them proper names, survived. The main text is a Bible translation, but with the Skeireins also an original Gothic text (albeit heavily influenced by Byzantine Greek) came upon us (see introduction). The language is transmitted in a dedicated, though defective, alphabet. The language probably had a stress accent (see sounds). Like modern Germanic languages, Gothic distinguishes two sets of adjectives, indefinite and definite. It has weak and strong verbs, the latter with complex ablaut patterns (see words). Deviations from the Greek original seem to indicate that the language was OV (see structures).

Lecturers

Ryan Sandell

LMU Munich

Nelson Goering

University of Oxford

introduction

Gothic, intro, unit 1

GOT-INT-001

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5446/49502

linguistic affiliations and external history: history and relationships of the Goths

slides

Gothic, intro, unit 2

GOT-INT-002

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5446/49512

writing system: the Gothic alphabet, origins, other orthographic practices, text sample

slides

Gothic, intro, unit 3

GOT-INT-003

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5446/49499

sources and scholarly resources: manuscripts, editions, grammars, dictionaries, bibliographies

slides

sounds

Gothic, sounds, unit 1

GOT-PHO-001

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5446/49511

orthographic interpretation and phonemic system: spelling-sound correspondences, segmental inventory, phonemic analysis

slides

Gothic, sounds, unit 2

GOT-PHO-002

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5446/49498

syllabification and prosodic phonology: evidence for syllable structure, syllabification rules, stress, foot, clitics and prosodic words

slides

Gothic, sounds, unit 3

GOT-PHO-003

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5446/49510

morphophonology: s-deletion, fricative substitution, i-epenthesis, a-epenthesis, Thurneysen's law, reduplication

slides

words

Gothic, words, unit 1

GOT-MOR-001

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5446/49509

noun stem formation and composition: nominal system, stem formation, major noun classes, nominal composition

slides

Gothic, words, unit 2

GOT-MOR-002

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5446/49508

adjectives, demonstratives and pronouns: inflection, gradation of adjectives, classes of pronouns, participles

slides

Gothic, words, unit 3

GOT-MOR-003

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5446/49507

verbal stem formation: relevant morphosyntactic features, structure of the stem, strong versus weak verbs, overview of verb classes

slides

Gothic, words, unit 4

GOT-MOR-004

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5446/49506

verbal inflection: preterite presents, copula ‘be’, inflectional endings, summary of verbal inflection, verbal prefixes

slides

structures

Gothic, structures, unit 1

GOT-STR-001

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5446/49505

overview: translation effects, linearization, gender and agreement, number, case, possession, definiteness

slides

Gothic, structures, unit 2

GOT-STR-002

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5446/49500

arguments and valency: alignment and subjects, causatives and transitivity, voice, adposition incorporation

slides

Gothic, structures, unit 3

GOT-STR-003

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5446/49501

verbal syntax: past/non-past, participles, statives, aspect and prefixes, modality (optative, modal elements), negation

slides

Gothic, structures, unit 4

GOT-STR-004

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5446/49504

clausal syntax: coordination, absolutes (dative, nominative, accusative), relative clauses, infinitives (control, accusative plus infinitive, etc.)

slides

texts

Gothic, texts, unit 1

GOT-TXT-001

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5446/49503

Text sample:
John 18:10-11

 slides

references

Lecturers' references

selection out of the lecturers’ references, enriched by Lars Ahrens and project members:


general

general introductions, encyclopedias, literature, writing, history, miscellaneous


Falluomini, Carla. 2015. The Gothic Version of the Gospels and Pauline Epistles: Cultural Background, Transmission and Character. Berlin: de Gruyter.
Harbert, Wayne. 2007. The Germanic Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lambdin, Thomas O. 2006. An Introduction to the Gothic Language. Eugene: Wipf & Stock.
Snædal, Magnús H. 2013. A Concordance to Biblical Gothic, Vol. 1: Introductions, Texts; Vol. 2 Concordance. 3rd edn. 2 Vols. Reykjavík: University of Iceland.
Lexicity. 2016. Gothic. (Accessed 2021-06-24.)
Nègre, Xavier. 2002-2021. Lexilogos (Accessed 2021-07-05.)


grammar

grammars, treatments of major grammatical domains


Miller, D. Gary. 2019. The Oxford Gothic Grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ferraresi, Gisella. 2005. Word order and phrase structure in Gothic. Leuven: Peeters.
Streitberg, Wilhelm. 1920. Gotisches Elementarbuch. 5th edn. Heidelberg: Winter. (digitized version at the Internet Archive.) (Accessed 2021-07-05.)

See also a list of grammars on Lexicity 2016 and Lexilogos.


lexicon

dictionaries, headword search tools, further sources of information about the lexicon


Lehmann, Winfred P. 1986. A Gothic Etymological Dictionary: Based on the Third Edition of Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache by Sigmund Feist. Leiden: Brill.
Streitberg, Wilhelm. 1910. Die Gotische Bibel. Zweiter Teil: Gotisch-griechisch-deutsches Wörterbuch. Heidelberg: Carl Winter’s Universitätsbuchhandlung. (digitized version at the Wulfila Project) (Accessed 2021-05-07.)
Project Wulfila. 2004. Dictionary. (Accessed 2021-07-05.)

See also a list of dictionaries on Lexicity 2016 and Lexilogon.


text

text collections, corpora, treebanks


Balg, Gerhard H. 1891. The First Germanic Bible. Milwaukee: self-published. (digitized version at the Internet Archive) (Accessed 2021-07-05.)
Gippert, Jost & Martinez, Javier & Korn, Agnes & Mittmann, Roland. 2016. TITUS TEXTUS: Thesaurus Indogermanischer Text- und Sprachmaterialien. Frankfurt: University of Frankfurt. (Accessed 2021-06-25.)
Uppsala University Library. No date. Codex Argenteus. (Accessed 2021-07-05.)

See also a digitized version of the Gothic Bible at the Wulfila Project, see also a selection of available texts on Lexicity 2016.


teaching material

coursebooks, exercises, materials or introductions supporting teaching


Krause, Todd B. & Slocum, Jonathan. 2004. Early Indo-European Online: Gothic Online. University of Texas: Linguistics Research Centre. (Accessed 2021-06-24.)