Comparing languages. Examples [gothic-l]

[Francisc Czobor]

Hi Cory,

--- In gothic-l at y..., cstrohmier at y... wrote:
> Hi Francisc,
> 	Concerning the word "attila", if I remember correctly, it is 
> unattested in Gothic:

Indeed, it is unattested in the surviving Gothic texts, but the 
diminutive of atta "father" in Gothic could be only "attila", since 
"-ila" is the regular diminutive suffix in Gothic.

  In other words, we don't know for sure what 
> the Goths called Attila the Hun.  Since the word Etzel (Attila) is 
> attested in Middle High German, perhaps the word is of Old High 
> German origin, or as I said before, a shared word.

But his name was attested also by contemporary sources, in the forms 
Attila or Athila. At that time (5th century) it's hard to speak about 
Old High German, in the best case what the German linguists are 
calling "Voralthochdeutsch". In several sources I read this 
interpretation, that Attila means "little father" in Gothic, with two 
explanations:
- this was the nickname given to the Hunish king by his East Germanic 
subjects;
- this was the Gothicization of the real name of the Hunish king.
 
> ... 
> 	It is an unproven assumption that all of the words and 
> structures common to Gothic and Old Bavarian are Gothic loans to Old 
> Bavarian.  

It is not my assumption, I found it in all the sources that are 
discussing this subject, for instance:
[1] Stefan Sonderegger: Althochdeutsche Sprache und Literatur, de
Gruyter, Berlin - New York, 1987
[2] Werner König: DTV-Atlas zur deutschen Sprache, Deutscher 
Taschenbuch Verlag, München, 1996
[3] Günther Drosdowski: DUDEN Etymologie - Herkunftswörterbuch der
deutschen Sprache, Duden Verlag, Mannheim - Leipzig - Wien - Zürich,
1989
[4] Virgil Stefanescu-Draganesti: Introduction to the Comparative
Grammar of the Germanic Languages, University of Bucharest, 1971
[5] Johann Wolf: Banater deutsche Mundartenkunde, Kriterion Verlag,
Bukarest, 1987

Old High German, especially Old Bavarian, and Gothic not 
> only share a number of general vocabulary words, they also share 
some 
> unique structure words, such as pronouns (which are rarely borrowed) 
> and some inflectional endings; these unique sharings are connected 
to 
> the very structure of the language, and are shared with no other 
> Germanic language.  I would add that there are many other general 
> vocabulary words, structure words, and inflections of Old High 
> German, especially Old Bavarian, which are very near or identical to 
> Gothic, but which are not considered as a sign of special 
> relationship, since they are also shared with many other Germanic 
> tongues.  This may be necessary from a scholarly point of view, but 
> it is also misleading.

This fact could be explained also by the assimilation of Goths by the 
ancestors of Bavarians, the Bavarian dialect of OHG having thus in 
part a Gothic substratum.
Nevertheless, OHG, including Old Bavarian, remains a West Germanic 
language, being separated from Gothic by major definitory 
characteristics shared with other West Germanic languages, and some of 
them also with the North Germanic languages, as for instance:
- the rhotacism Gmc. z > r; in Gothic z is preserved or changed in s.
- the shift of IE and Gmc e: > a:; in Gothic the IE/Gmc long e is 
preserved.
- the loss of "-ð-" in Gmc. *feðwo:r/*feður- "four". Only in Gothic it 
is preserved: Wulfilan fidwor/fidur-, Crimean fyder. All the West and 
North Germanic languages have lost it: OHG fior, Germ.&Dutch vier, 
W.Fris. fjouwer, N.Fris. sjauer, OE feower, Eng. four, ON fiórer, 
Icel. fjórir/fjórar/fjögur, Norw.&Danish fire, Swedish fyra, Gutnish 
fiaurum/fiugur.
These two phonetic features are in my view major differentiating 
criteria, creating a gap between Gothic (East Germanic in general), on 
one side, and West and North Germanic, on the other side, so that even 
languages like Old Bavarian and Old Gutnish, that appear to have some 
special relationship with Gothic, can not be considered as East 
Germanic languages or descendants of Gothic.

Francisc


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