Gothic Language
The Gothic language is recognized as the oldest documented Germanic language and became extinct by the seventeenth century. It was historically spoken by the Goths, a nomadic tribe from northern Europe, who significantly impacted the Roman Empire, notably sacking Rome in 410 CE. The language itself evolved in part through contact with Roman culture and the adoption of Christianity, leading to the creation of a unique Gothic alphabet in the fourth century CE, which merged Greek, Latin, and runic writing systems. This alphabet was used primarily by Bishop Wulfila to translate the Bible into Gothic, resulting in the preservation of fragments like the Codex Argenteus.
Gothic features a simplified grammatical structure, utilizing only present and past tenses, and gendered nouns across five grammatical cases. Despite its historical significance, Gothic has not directly evolved into any modern languages, though some of its words have loose connections to contemporary English. The language's geographical distribution was extensive among the migrating Goth tribes, including the Ostrogoths and Visigoths, who assimilated into surrounding cultures in Southern Europe and Asia. Today, while Gothic is not spoken, it is studied by linguists and historians as a crucial link to the development of Germanic and Indo-European languages.
Gothic Language
Extinct since the seventeenth century, the Gothic language is the oldest documented Germanic language. Germanic language is the common ancestor of English and other modern languages. Gothic language was used by the Goths, a group of people from northern Europe who were often referred to as barbarians. In 410 CE, the Goths sacked the city of Rome, a significant milepost in the fall of the Roman Empire.
Not much is known about the Goths' original language. The little that survives is a version written in an alphabet developed in the fourth century CE. This Gothic alphabet evolved from the fusion of three other writing systems—mostly ancient Greek mixed with some Latin and runic characters. The alphabet consists of twenty-seven characters, two of which do not have a corresponding sound value and are included simply for their numerical value. The alphabet incorporated the ancient Greek practice of assigning numerical values to letters. This enabled it to double as a number system. The language uses only two tenses—present and preterite, a tense form referring to past events. It also uses the gendered noun forms of masculine, feminine, and neutral and incorporates the five cases of nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, and vocative.
While other branches of Germanic speech evolved into English and various modern languages, Gothic does not show any features common in modern usage. Some Gothic words may bear a relation to modern terms but are not part of a linguistic evolution. Some examples of Gothic words and their English translations are broþar (brother), aqizi (axe), daúhtar (daughter), sunus (son), fijands (enemy), wato (water), wintrus (winter), and asans (summer).
History and Classification
The Goths were a nomadic tribe that migrated south from Northern Europe around the first century CE. Their exact origins are unknown although it is speculated they came from an area near modern-day Sweden. In the third century CE, they came into contact with the Roman Empire, raiding Roman territories and initiating several conflicts. Roman historians called them barbarians, a term used to describe what many Romans felt were their less-civilized enemies.
In 410 C.E., under the leader Alaric, the Goths pillaged Rome and occupied the city. The Roman Empire had been in decline for several years, and the event was considered another significant blow to the empire's prestige at the time. Contact with Rome culturally influenced the Goths, who began to integrate into Roman society and convert to Christianity. This development helped to transform their language.
The language of the Goths was based on a runic writing system called Futhark, a name created from the first six letters of its alphabet. Not much is known about the origins of early Gothic, and few examples of it have survived. As the Goths embraced Christianity, Christian leaders began to consider the Goth's language too "pagan." In the fourth century, Bishop Wulfila, a Gothic clergyman tasked with helping in the conversion process, created a new alphabet to translate a copy of the Bible into Gothic. Wulfila used primarily Greek symbols but incorporated some elements of Latin and Futhark runes. The original Bible was lost, but a fragmented copy of it survived in a sixth-century manuscript from northern Italy called the Codex Argenteus. This document contains a small section of the Old Testament and larger portions of the New Testament.
Other surviving works in Gothic are rare. The best known of these are fragments of a commentary on the Gospel of John known as the Skeireins—Gothic for "explanation"—and the Codex Ambrosianus, translated biblical fragments. Other surviving examples of the Gothic language include a piece of a calendar, two deeds containing some Gothic sentences, a tenth-century manuscript with the Gothic alphabet, and a few other examples of Gothic words and translations. Use of the language seems to have ceased in the region near the tenth century, with the last known Gothic text from the era dating from about that time.
The language survived for a few more centuries in the Crimean region near the Black Sea in modern-day Ukraine. A 1562 work by Flemish diplomat Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq, an ambassador to the Turkish sultan, includes a list of eighty-six Crimean Gothic words. De Busbecq transcribed the words during an interview with local residents in the Crimean. It is the last recorded use of the language, and soon afterward, the Gothic language became extinct.
Geographic Distribution and Modern Usage
It is impossible to determine the geographical extent to which Gothic was spoken. The Goths were nomadic and migrated from northern Europe southward over hundreds of years. They were divided into two main tribes: the Ostrogoth or Greutungi, also known as dune-dwellers; and the Visigoths or Tervingi, known as steppe-dwellers. Other tribes related to the Goths included the Burgundians and Vandals. The Goths settled in various areas in southern Europe and Asia and eventually assimilated into surrounding cultures.
The Gothic language is not used in the twenty-first century, but it is studied by scholars as a link between the origins of the Germanic language and the Indo-European languages thought to be the origin of modern speech. Since Gothic bears more similarities to the Germanic parent language, it is often used to help reconstruct lost forms of communication.
Bibliography
"About the Gothic Language." Project Wulfila. University of Antwerp, Belgium. Web. 4 Sept. 2015. http://www.wulfila.be/gothic/gotica/
Dalby, Andrew. Dictionary of Languages: The Definitive Reference to More than 400 Languages. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004. Print.
"Gothic." Ancientscipts.com. Ancientscipts.com. Web. 4 Sept. 2015. http://www.ancientscripts.com/gothic.html
"Gothic Alphabet." Omniglot. Omniglot. Web. 4 Sept. 2015. http://www.omniglot.com/writing/gothic.htm
Jarus, Owen. "Who Were the Ancient Goths?" LiveScience. Purch. 29 May 2014. Web. 4 Sept. 2015. http://www.livescience.com/45948-ancient-goths.html