GOTHIC LANGUAGE AND LITERA TURE. The language of the Goths is the oldest member of the Teutonic branch of the Indo-European family. It is known through a Visigothic Bible translation of the 4th century A.D. The earliest historical indications con cerning the home of the Goths place them along the lower course of the Vistula in modern Poland and Prussia between Warsaw and Dant zic. Here they remained as late as 150 A.D., but early in the following century, having been dislodged probably by the movements of their Hunnish neighbors, they appeared to the north of the lower Danube and on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea in modern Rumania and southwestern Russia as far east as Odessa. To the west on the Danube were the Visigoths; to the east, in southwestern Russia, the Ostro goths. In 251 they defeated the Emperor De cius at Philippopolis, but in 270, after various incursions into Thrace and Greece, were driven back to their seat north of the Danube. They were known to the ancient historians and geog raphers as Gotones or Gothones, and later as Gothi, which points to the native name Gutans or Gutos.
The only extant monuments of the language are (1) Portions of a Bible translation, of a paraphrasing interpretation of the Gospel of John, and of a calendar contained in fragments of manuscripts written in Italy in the 6th cen tury, presumably by Ostrogoths and known as the Codex Argenteus. (2) The signatures of Gothic witnesses on two Latin records or re ceipts, one at Naples, one formerly at Arezzo; the originals of which are now lost. A few Gothic words and names of alphabetic symbols in a Salzburg MS. now at Vienna. (3) A few Gothic words in a Latin epigram, a large num ber of proper names from Greek and Latin sources, and in old Spanish documents and in scriptions. (4) The scanty records of a Gothic
language, probably Ostrogothic, preserved as late as the 16th century in the Crimea. The Bible translation, of which there remain por tions of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Esdras, Nehemiah, is associated always with the name Ulfilar or Ulfilas. He was probably himself a Goth, born about 310 A.D., made bishop of the Goths 341, removed 348, with a large body of his followers avoiding persecution, into Mcesia, south of the Danube; died 380 or 381. Ulfilas not only did the work of translation, but he in vented an alphabet for it, using as a basis the Greek uncial alphabet of his time with preserva tion of its order, as well as of the numerical and phonetic values of the letters. He adopted it, however, to its purpose by the use of forms taken from the Latin and Runic alphabets, creating a system better for the purpose than either of the three.
The inflexion of nouns is distinguished by its relatively close approach to the original Indo-European system. In its inflection and phonology it is the most primitive of the Ger manic languages. Of the cases it preserves nominative, vocative, genitive, accusative and dative, the latter including the original instru mental and locative, and to some extent the ab lative.
Consult Balg, 'Comparative Glossary of the Gothic Language' (Maryville, Wis., 1887-89); Skeat, 'Mxso-Gothic Glossary' (London 1868) ; Wright, A. J., 'A Primer of the Gothic Lan guage' (Oxford 1899).