GOTHIC LANGUAGE (Lat. Gothicus, from Go thus, Gk. Gothos, ebony, Gythdn, from Goth. Goth-people, AS. Gotan, OSwed. Gutar, Gotar, Goths; cf. dialectic Norweg. gut, boy). The language spoken by the Goths (q.v.). Excepting the Old Icelandic runic inscriptions (see RUNES) and a few Germanic glosses and proper names preserved in classical authors, such as Cesar and Tacitus, Gothic is the oldest monu ment of all the dialects of the Germanic group of Indo-Germanic languages. Like Anglo-Saxon, Frisian, and Old Icelandic, it has undergone only the first sound-shifting, or ablaut, and is conse quently one of the Low Germanic languages, as contrasted with Old High German, where the second sound-shifting has been carried through. (See GRIMM'S LAW.) Within this Low Ger manic sub-group it is most closely akin to the Scandinavian (Old Icelandic, Old Norwegian, Old Swedish, Old Danish, and their modern repre sentatives), so that some scholars class Gothic and Old Scandinavian together as East Germanic, contrasting this group with the Anglo-Frisian and High Germanic languages, which are then termed West Germanic. The most important points of coincidence between Gothic and Ice landic are the development of Germanic uu to ggua (as Gothic trigqws, Old Icelandic tryggr, `true,' but Anglo-Saxon treow,e, Old High German triuwi), and the retention of final z (Gothic s, Old Icelandic r), which is lost in West Germanic (as Gothic days, Old Icelandic dagr, 'day,' but Anglo-Saxon dwg, Old High German tag). On the other hand, Gothic and Scandinavian diverge in many respects, especially in declension and conjugation (as runic Norse pohtril?, 'daughters,' but Gothic alohtrjus ; runic Norse taw-i po, 'I did,' but Gothic tawida). It therefore seems better on the whole to regard Gothic and Scandinavian as belonging to different groups, which may be termed East and North Germanic respectively.
The sources of our knowledge of Gothic are limited. The earliest gloss preserved is in Isidor of Seville, who cites the words niedus, 'mead,' and replay?, 'garment.' The Lex Visigothorum also contains a few Gothic words, as leudes, 'people,' and saio (whence the Spanish sayon), The most important and extensive remnant of the language is the fragments of the translation of the Bible by Wulfila (q.v.). There are also a few words, chiefly proper names, in two docu ments found at Naples and Arezzo, and a frag ment of a calendar.
In phonology and inflection Gothic is the most primitive of all the Germanic languages. Its pronunciation is fixed by our knowledge of that of Greek in the fourth century. Thus as et in Creek then had the itacistic value of r is repre sented in Gothic by ei. Similarly ng is written gg in Gothic in conformity with the Greek use of Ty instead of The vowels and consonants correspond in general to the Pre-Germanic pho nology. Short e, however, does not occur, being changed to i (as Old High German neman, take,' but Gothic niman), which is written ai fore h and r (as Gothic airpa, 'earth,' raihts, `right,' but Old High German erda, reht), exactly as u is written all in a similar position (as Gothic wafirms, 'worm,' scuillts, 'sickness,' but Old High German wurm, suht). Pre-Germanic z, which be came r in the other Germanic languages, re mained z in Gothic, but sometimes, for reasons not yet altogether clear, it was changed to s (as Gothic auso, 'ear,' but Old High German Ora). The declension does not differ materially from the Germanic type. The pronouns of the first and second persons have, as in Old Icelandic, Anglo-Saxon, and Old Saxon, a dual. The con jugation of the verb, while harmonizing in gen eral with the Germanic type, is marked by a number of important features. Gothic is the only Germanic language in which the verb re tains the dual number (as bairns, 'we two bear,' bairats, 'ye two bear,' Sanskrit, bharavas, bhara thas; bairaiwa, 'we two bore,' Sanskrit, abha rava), and the third person of the imperative (bairadau, get him hear,' bairandau, get them bear,' Sanskrit, bharatu, bharantu). The re duplicated preterit which is very rare in other Germanic languages, is frequent in Gothic, eleven preterits of this type being found in the scanty remnants of the literature. As examples may be cited: faifah, from Wan, `to seize,' haihdit, from hatan, `to call,' rafrop, from redan, `to counsel,' salsa, from saian, `to sow.' For all these preterits the Anglo-Saxon, for example, has as corresponding forms fang, heht, reord, stow. Most noteworthy of all, however, is the fact that Gothic, unlike any other member of the Ger manic group, possesses a middle voice in other verbs than ha tan, `to call.' Thus Gothic bairaza, `thou bearest thyself,' bairada, 'he bears himself,' bairanda, 'they bear themselves.' correspond to Sanskrit bharase, bharata, bharante.