Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 09.djvu/95

* GOTHIC JURISPRUDENCE. 73 GOTHIC LANGUAGE. the Brci'iariiDn Alaricianiim remained tlie chief source of Roman law for Western Eiiropo, and as such exerted a great inllueucc on the licvclop- nieut of law, especially in Spain, where Ferdi- nand III. (1217-52) introduced it under the title of Fiiero ju~o (Lat. forum judiciale). Consult: Pollock and Maitland. History of Enrjlish Lair. vol. i.(2d ed., Oxford. 1,S!19) ; Zeumer. -Lex Wisi- (jotliorum" in Monumcnta Gcrmanicr hislorica, Lcl^es. scctio /.(Hanover, 1894). See Civil Law. GOTHIC LANGUAGE (Lat. Gothicits, from Qothtis, Gk. T60OS, Oothos, roe^v, (JythOn. from Goth. Giit-piudd, Goth-iX'oplc, A8. GOtan. O.Swed. Gutar, Gotar, Goths; cf. dialectic Norweg. gut, boy I. The language spoken by the Goths (q.v. ). Excepting the Old Icelandic runic inscriptions (see Runes) and a few Germanic glos.scs and proper names presci-ved in classical authors, such as Caesar and Tacitus, Gothic is the oldest monu- ment of all the dialects of the Germanic group of Indo-Germnnic 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 (/r/)(i (as Gothic IrUjcjirs, Old Icelandic tryggr, 'true,' but Anglo-Saxon trfotce. Old High German triuivi), and the retention of final ^ (Gothic s. Old Icelandic r). which is lost in West Germanic (as Gothic dags. Old Icelandic dagr, 'day,' but Anglo-Saxon dcrg. Old High German tag). On the other hand. Gothic and Scandinavian diverge in many respects, especially in declension and conjugation (as runic Norse politriR. 'daughters.' but Gothic dohtrjiis : runic Norse tairi po. 'I did,' but Gothic tavidn). It therefore seems better on the whole to regard Gothic and Scandinavian as belonging to different groups, which may be termed East and North C4ermanic respectively. The sources of our knowledge of Gothic are limited. The earliest gloss preserved is in Isidor of Seville, who cites the words medtts. 'mead,' and reptiis. 'garment.' The Lex Visigothorum also contains a few Gothic words, as lendes, 'people,' and saio ( whence the Spanish snt/on), 'beadle.' The most important and extensive remnant of the language is the fragments of the translation of the Bible by Ulfila.S (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 pronunci.ation is fixed by otir knowledge of that of Greek in the fourth century. Thus as eJ in Greek then had the itacistic A'alue of i, i is repre- sented in Gothic by ei. Similarly ng is written gg in Gothic in conformity with the Greek use of 77 instead of yy. 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 (ierman ncman, 'to take,' but Gothic niinan), which is written at be- fore h and r (as (iothic airpa, 'earth,' raihts, 'right,' but Old High German erdu, reht), exactly us « is written oil in a similar position (as (iothio loaurms, 'worm,' suuhts, "sickness," but Old High German wurm, -tiilil). I're-Germanic ~, which be- came r in th(( otlier Germanic languages, re- mained s: in Gothic, but sometimes, for reasons not yet altogether clear, it was changed to s (as Gothic ausO, 'car,' but Old High (icrnian ora). The declension does not dill'cr 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 (icrnianic language in which the verb re- tains the dual number (as bairOs. 'we two bear,' iairats, 'ye two bear,' Sanskrit, bharavas, bhara- thas; bairaiwa, 'we two bore,' Sanskrit, abha- rara) . and the third person of the imperative (bairadau, 'let him bear,' balrandau, 'let 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: faifuh, from fahait. 'to seize,' haihait, from hdtan, 'to call,' rairop, from redan, 'to coimsel,' saiso, from saian, 'to sow.' For all these preterits the Anglo-Saxon, for example, has as corresponding forms feng, heht, reord, si-oio. Most noteworthy of all, however, is the fact that Ciothic, unlike any other member of the Ger- manic group, possesses a middle voice in other verbs than hdtan, 'to call.' Thus Gothic bairaza, 'thou bearest thyself,' bairada. 'he bears himself,' bairanda, 'they bear themselves.' correspond to Sanskrit bharnse. bharate, bharante. In its vocabulary Gothic has a number of Indo- Germanic words which are not found in tlie other Germanic languages, as us-anan, 'to breathe forth,' Latin animus, 'breath:' aljis. 'other.' Latin nliun. On the other hand, it has no etymological repre- sentation of such common Germanic words as do. .501/, fall, mother, for which it substitutes taujan, qipan. drinsan. aipri. As might be ex- pected in a translation of the Bible, Greek and Latin loan-words are quite numerous. It has likewise borrowed a few Celtic words, as kelilcn, 'tower.' from Gallic rilicnon, and two from the Slavic, plinsjnv. 'to dance.' and smakka, 'fig' (cf. Old Church Slavic plesati. smoky). Literary Gothic is sometimes termed West Gothic, to distinguish it from East, or Krim, Gothic. The Crimean Goths preserved their iden- tity until the sixteenth century. A collection of eighty-six Krim Gothic words was made in l.'ifl,^ by a Fleming named Busbeck. The list, which is of great value as hems the only remnant of this dialect of Gothic, is in general accurate, al- though some errors naturally crept in, as haser, 'thousand.' which is n loan-word from Persian haxar. It adds a number of words to the Gothic vocabulary, as miera, 'ant.' rinrk. 'ring,' ada, 'ess.' iraghrn. 'wagon.' In phonology Krim Gothic seems to have differed from the language of Ulfilas. The vocabulary of Busbeck contains little information on inflection. If we may judse, however, from such hints as Krim oeghrne be- side Gothic augOna, 'eyes,' Krim ahte, 'eight,*