[gothic-l] Goeter, goter, gutar

[Grsartor at AOL.COM]

Hailai allai

In his letter with the same title as appears above, Mr. Keth discusses the 
possible relation between the Gothic word giutan, to pour, and the name the 
Goths called themselves by.

He gives the ablaut forms of giutan as follows: present giuta, past singular 
gaut, past plural gutum, present participle gutans.
(The last of these is actually the past participle, with passive sense:  
(that has been) poured. The present participle is giutands.)

I think Mr. Keth is right to say we should be careful in making assumptions 
about how the name of the Goths would have been derived from these forms. 
Suppose, for example, that they had called themselves the Outpouring (in a 
sense like exodus). Verbs of the same class as giutan seem to have formed 
their derived nouns in at least two ways, as the following examples show:

driusan (to fall) has relations driuso (a cliff) and drus (a fall).

kiusan (to test) has kustus (a test).

fraliusan (to lose) has fralusts (a loss).

siukan (to be sick) has siukei (sickness).

kriusan (to gnash) has krusts (gnashing).

liugan (to tell lies) has liugn (a lie), liugnja (a liar).

driugan (to wage, carry on) has drauhtinassus (a campaign).

usþriutan (to harass) might well have had *þraut, to judge from OE þreat, and 
OIcelandic þraut.

Perhaps there is a tendency for nouns that indicate an action or process to 
have "u" for their stem vowel. In that case the most likely form of the words 
for "Goth", "Gothic", on the assumption stated earlier, would be "gut-"; but 
"giut-" and "gaut-" would also seem possible.

If the Goths' name for themselves meant the Poured-out People then we should 
presumably expect a form like "gutan".

I myself hold no opinion about whether the Germanic Goth-words are related to 
giutan. However, the assumption that they are does not seem to let us to make 
a definite prediction about what form the word for "Goth" should take. 
Therefore, unless we have other relevant evidence besides the purely 
linguistic, belief that Goth-words are related to giutan rests on what may be 
only a conjecture.

One last thing. This may seem stupid, and probably is, but I will ask it 
anyway. The Goths must surely have had a name for themselves before they 
embarked on their wanderings round Europe, for whatever reason. Would you not 
expect them to have taken their existing name with them?

Gerry T.

P.S. About how you express the perfect in Gothic: "gaut", for example, does 
duty for both "he poured" and "he has poured".

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