[gothic-l] Re: Old Gutnish

[Francisc Czobor]

Hi Bertil,

--- In gothic-l at y..., Bertil Häggman <mvk575b at t...> wrote:
> 
> Francisc,
> 
> Thank you for your contributions on Old Gutnish-Gothic.
> It made me make an inventory of what would have to
> be studied  (of course not the whole, but a substantial part
> of the corpus). Maybe what "reminds you" is not enough
> and I think professor Sophus Bugge was on the right (see
> his examples provided by me earlier) path and that
> professional linguistic research is needed. 

Yes, professional and objective. I will try to analyze those examples 
this weekend. But I think that a few isolated words that sound like 
Gothic can not change the overall character of Gutnish that, for me, 
is clearly Scandinavic. I found also an explanation for this:
In Gotland was initially spoken Gothic. A part (pprobably the grater 
part) of the Goths og Gotland crossed the Baltic sea and migrated 
south- and westwards, becoming the Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Gepids, 
Gothi Minores, Crimean Goths, etc.
Those who chosed to remain in their homeland, Gotland, were gradually 
"scandinavized" linguistically, maybe by arrival of settlers from the 
Swedish mainland, maybe through political dominance of Sweden, or 
because of both reasons, so that the attested Old Gutnish language was 
already an East Scandinavic language with some Gothic residues, but 
the inhabitants preserved their old name (Guta "Goth", Gutland "land 
of Goths").

It will
> take quite some time but I want to thank you for
> your interest and one personal view is always of
> value and I believe you are a very competent
> amateur.

Thank you very much for appreciation. Since I'm only an amateur, I can 
not judge how competent I am, and the appreciation of you and others 
really encourage me.

> Are you suggesting that Old Gutnish originally was a
> dialect? Which language would it be a dialect of?

All languages were originally dialects of their source languages.
Common Germanic was originally a dialect of Indo-European.
Scandinavic was originally a dialect of Common Germanic.
East Scandinavic was originally a dialect of Scandinavic.
Old Gutnish was originally a dialect of East Scandinavic, and it 
evolved as a distinct language from the other East Scandinavic 
languages (Danish and Swedish) probably (in my view) because of its 
Gothic substratum.

> Certainly it is important to make a thorough analysis
> of a larger corpus than just the two documents you mention.
> 
> Of the Runic inscriptions of Gotland a further investigation,
> which is no doubt needed, could include the following:
> 
> Sundre Church (three inscriptions)
> Vamlingbo Church (four)
> Hamra Church (eleven)
> Oeja Church (seven)
> Fide Church (four)
> Naes Church (two)
> Groetlingbo Church (four)
> Havdhem Church (three)
> Eke Church (three)
> Rone Church (one)
> Hemse Church (two)
> Hablingbo Church (three)
> Sproge Church (four)
> Eksta Church (four)
> Levide Church (two)
> Linde Church (one)
> Lojsta Church (four)
> Staanga Church (two)
> Naers Church (one)
> Lye Church (seven)
> Garda Church (two)
> Alskogs Church (one)
> Gammelgarn Church (one)
> Anga Church (four)
> Buttle Church (one)
> Vaenge Church (four)
> Guldrupe Church (six)
> Viklau Church (one)
> Sjonhem Church (one)
> 
> This is only a part of the whole corpus.
> 
> No, there is no implication that two languages were 
> spoken on Gotland. Only Gutnish, which today is
> spoken by a minority of the island inhabitants.
> 
> A comparative study is under preparation and I would
> be happy to provide the results to you, when they are
> published (possibly in French, but that, I guess,
> would provide no problem for you in Romania).

Thank you very much.
I can read and speak English, French and German without any problem.
I understand also a little Spanish, Hungarian, and Russian (and also 
can read in these languages with the help of an dictionary).

Francisc


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