[gothic-l] Re: Old Nordic, Gothic and Old Gutnish

[Francisc Czobor]

Hi Bertil,

--- In gothic-l at y..., Bertil Häggman <mvk575b at t...> wrote:
> ...
> My personal opinion is that Old Gutnish may be the
> missing link. Not identical with Gothic but an
> East Scandinavian language that cannot be placed
> with the North Germanic languages.
> ...

Sorry, but I can not agree with you on this point.
Please look at my message no. 3988 to this list (subject: Gothic and 
Gutnish numbers).
The numbers represent a basic subsystem of every language system, and 
the comparison of numbers, especially of the basic ones (1-10) is very 
 relevant for judging the relatedness of languages.
The Gutnish numbers are very clearly related to those of other North 
Germanic languages and not closer to Gothic. If you look at them, you 
will see that this is the only objective conclusion possible.
I am sure that this is the case also for other components of the basic 
vocabulary.
The fact that Gutnish is phonetically more conservative does not mean 
that it is closer related to Gothic. The closer relatedness of two 
languages is proven not by common archaisms, but by common 
innovations.
In fact, why is Gutnish regarded as closer to Gothic than other 
Germanic languages? Mainly because, like Gothic, it preserves the 
Common Germanic diphthongs "ai" and "au". But this is not sufficient 
in order to affirm that Gutnish is the closest relative of Gothic.
Gothic preserves the "ai" and "au" because of its very early 
attestation, at a time when these diphthongs were still preserved in 
all Germanic languages. But in its subsequent evolution, Gothic 
doesn't appear to be particularly conservative regarding the 
diphthongs. In Crimean Gothic, ai > "e" or "ie", and au > "oe" 
(whatever it represents, it's obvious that this "oe" is different from 
"au").
In conclusion, the special relationship of Gutnish with Gothic appear 
to me as being only a desiderate. But looking at the facts, I saw in 
Gutnish a phonetically more conservative language that other North 
Germanic languages, but that is clearly and closely related to the 
other North Germanic languages and not closer to Gothic than German, 
English, Danish, Swedish etc. (excepting the above mentioned phonetic 
archaisms).

Francisc


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