LANGUAGE OF THE GOTS / GOTHS

In the Gothic Bible is a Lord’s Prayer, as we well know.  No, the Gots or Goths of Gutland / Gotland are no heathen pagans.  They were some of the early Christians.    The Lords prayer is written in two of the Gots dialects and English.

Atta unsar þu in himinam,
Fader vor du i himlen.
Father our, you in heaven,
Weihnai namo þein.
Helligt være navnet dit.
hallowed be the name yours,
Qimai þiudinassus þeins.
(lad) Komme kongeriget dit.
(let) come kingdom yours.
Wairþai wilja þeins,
(lad) ske viljen din,
(let) be done will yours,
swe in himina jah ana airþai.
Som i himlen og på jorden.
As in heaven and on earth.
Hlaif unsarana þana sinteinan gif uns himma daga.
brød vort dette daglig giv os (i) disse dage.
bread our daily give us in these days.
Jah aflet uns þatei skulans sijaima,
og forlad os hvilken skyld vi måtte være (have).
And forgive us which guilts we may (have).
Swaswe jah weis afletam þaim skulam unsaraim.
Samt vi forlader skyldene vore.
And we forgive them that have guilts against us.
jah ni briggais uns in fraistubnjai,
og ikke bring os i fristelse,
And not bring us into temptation.
ak lausei uns af þamma ubilin.
Men løs os fra det onde.
but deliver us from evil.
Unte þeina ist þiudangardi jah mahts jah wulþus in aiwins.
thi dit er kongedømme og magt og herlighed i evighed.
For yours is kingdom and power and glory in eternity.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen

Gothic text from “Deutche Sprache gestern und heute” by Astrid Stedje.
Gothic – Danish – English

Gothic, as spoken by both the Western as the Eastern Goths was a Germanic language closely connected to modern Scandinavian, German and English. Thanks to the Gothic Wulfila Bible, which was written in Italy in the sixth century and the Fleming Busbeccq’s notes about his meeting with representatives of a small group of long-surviving Goths in the Crimea, whom he met in Constantinople in the 16. century, we have a fairly good knowledge of the Gothic language.

The Gothic Bible is a translation from Greek to Gothic of the four Gospels in the New Testament, as well as a part of Paul’s letters. It contains almost nothing of the Old Testament.

We recognize the majority of words from German and Scandinavian. Atta means father as in “æt”, the old Danish word for family or lineage. Unsar we find the German “uns” (us). þu we find in Danish and German “du” and English “you”, in similar to “in” German and English and “i” in Danish. Himian similar to “himmel” (sky) in Danish and German. In the first syllable of Weinai we recognize the German Weinacht (Christmas Eve) Namo means “name” as in English and German and “navn” in Danish. Wilja is corresponding to “vilje” in Danish, “will” in English and “wille” in German. The preposition ana is corresponding to the German “an”, which also has been used in Danish and is still in use in compound words and phrases as “anledning” (occasion), “angive” (inform) and “anliggende” (matter) as well as the English “on”. Hlaif corresponds to “leve”, an old Danish word for bread, as well as the English “loaf”. Aflet and afletam gives associations to the Danish “aflede” (divert). Gif is equivalent to “giv” in Danish, “to give” in English and “geben” in German. Himma corresponds to the old Danish “hine” (these) Daga corresponds to “dage” in Danish, “days” in English and “Tage” in German. Skulans means guilt, as a scowling (“skule” in Danish) person may look like a guilty person. Ak means “but”, indicating that a traditional Danish or German exclamation of sorry “ak-ak” or “ach-ach” originally could have ment “but-but”. Lausei corresponds to the Danish “løse”, German lösen and English “lose”. Ubilin corresponds to “Übel” (evil) in German. Mahts corresponds to “magt” in Danish, “might” in English and “Macht” in German. þiudan-gardi has two parts, the first one is something with þiu , which is “king” in Gothic, and the other has to do with -gardi , which is “gård” (farm or enclosure) in Danish, geard in Old English and “gard” in Old Saxon – here it refers to a type of category.

The Gothic Bible also includes the Christmas story from Luke ch. 2: Warþ þan in dagans jainans, urrann gagrefts fram kaisara Agustau, gameljan allana midjungard.

Literal translation: It came to pass and in days those, (that) there went out decree from Caesar Augustus (that) should be taxed all (in) the world.

Crimean- Gothic	Flemish	Danish	German	English
broe	brood	brød	brot	bread
plut	bloed	blod	blut	blood
stul	stoel	stol	stuhl	chair
hus	huys	hus	haus	house
wingart	wijgaert	vin	wein	wine
reghen	regen	regn	regen	rain
bruder	broeder	broder	bruder	brother
schwester	zuster	søster	schwester	sister
alt	oud	gammel	alt	old
vintch	wind	vind	wind	wind
silvir	zilver	sølv	silber	silver
golltz	goud	guld	gold	gold
kor	koren	korn	korn	grain
salt	zout	salt	salt	salt
fisct	visch	fisk	fisch	fish
hoef	hoofd	hoved	kopf	head
thurn	deure	dør	tür	door
stern	star	stjerne	stern	star
sune	zon	sol	sonne	sun
mine	maen	måne	mond	moon
tag	dag	dag	tag	day
oeghene	oogen	øjne	augen	eyes
bars	baert	skæg	bart	beard
handa	hand	hånd	hand	hand

Extract from the list of words that the Fleming Ogier Ghislain de Busbecq heard from two representatives of the Goths on the Crimea during a dinner in Constantinople around 1560. Krimgotisk by Poul Erik Jørgensen.

Note that the word for world, midjungard, is very similar to the Scandinavian Midgard.

There are three genders in Gothic namely masculine, feminine and neuter, as in modern German and old Danish. There are two times, past and present, as well as four kasus, namely nominative, accusative, genitive and dative and also, of course, singular and plural.

In Crimea lived Goths until about the 16. century. The Flemish Ogier Ghislain de Busbecqs, who was ambassador of the Holy Roman Empire in Constantinople 1560-62, has in his report provided us with knowledge of their language. He became aware that two representatives of the Goths on Crimea, whom he had heard of, were visiting Constantinople to present some cases for the Sultan. He managed to invite them to a dinner, during which he questioned them about their language and culture.

The definite article in Gothic was very similar to English. Busbecq told: “in front of all the words he puts tho or the”.

In Danish, we have retained the “sw” sound associated with sister in the names for the spouse family, “svoger” (brother in-law), “svigerfar” (father in-law), “svigermor” (mother in-law) and “svigerfamilie” (family in-law).

The two Gothic representatives also told Busbecq several other words that were not so similar to Flemish and German.

A page of the Wulfila Bible. It is also called “codex argenteus”, which means “Silver Bible”. It is believed that it was written for the Ostrogothic king of Italy, Theodoric the Great. Originally the Bible was translated from Greek to Gothic by Bishop Wulfila in the Balkans in the third century. It is written with the special Gothic alphabet, which was also created by Wulfila. It is called the silver bible because it is written with ink, which contains silver and gold on costly thin parchment. It was originally stored in the Benedictine monastery in Werden in Germany. It was looted by the Swedes in the Thirty Years’ War, and after a turbulent period it ended up in the University Library in Uppsala in Sweeden.

It is seen that Gothic differs from Danish and other Germanic languages by a number of words ending with -a, giving the language an exotic southern touch. The famous king of the Ostro-Goths was for example called Totilla and it sounds almost Mexican at least Spanish. It is believed that this frequent -a ending was an abbreviation, which replaced older, longer and more laborious endings. It is very imaginable that Spanish and to some extent Italian have the frequent -a endings from Gothic. Jordanes, who himself was a Goth, called occasionally the Heruls for “Erulos” which -os ending also sounds Spanish and Mediterranean, but Jordanes had never been to Spain, so it originates probably also from Gothic.

Preserving the Past, Recording the Present, Informing the Future

Ancient and Honorable Carruthers Clan Int Society 

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Dr Patricia Carrothers

Reviewed by Tammy Wise CHS

CLAN SEANACHAIDHI

CLAN CARRUTHERS INT SOCIETY CCIS HISTORIAN AND GENEALOGIST

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