[gothic-l] Re: The Goths, Gutland (Gutones) and the Guta Saga

[dirk at SMRA.CO.UK]

--- In gothic-l at y..., "Francisc Czobor" <czobor at c...> wrote:
> Hi Dirk,
> 
> Here are the Old-Gutnish numbers quoted by you, together with their 
> equivalents in Gothic (Wulfilan and Crimean) and in Scandinavic 
> languages.
> 
>                    GOTHIC          SCANDINAVIC (NORTH GERMANIC)
>    Gutnish   Wulfilan Crimean   Old Norse Icelandic Swedish Danish 
> 1. ann        eins     ene       einn       einn      en      en
> 2. tueir      twai     tua       tueir      tveir     två     to
> 4. fiaurir    fidwor   fyder     fiorer     fjörir    fyra    fire
> 7. siau       sibun    sevene    siau       sjö       sju     syv
> 
> It seems to me obvious only from this example that the Old Gutnish 
> language is rather related to North Germanic than to Gothic.
> Also other few Gutnish words that I saw in other sources looked 
rather 
>  Old Norse or Swedish than Gothic.
> And in any case, knowing only Gothic, nobody would guess that "siau" 
> means "sibun" (seven), and even "fiaurir" would be problematic 
> (doesn't look very similar to "fidwor").
> 
> Francisc


Hi Francisc,

thanks for completing the comparison. I found the following example of 
 Old Gutnish from the Gutar Saga, with an English translation. 


"Mangir kunungar striþu a Gutland miþan haiþit war; þau hieldu Gutar e 
iemlika sigri oc ret sinum. Siþan sentu Gutar sendimen manga
til Swiarikis, en engin þaira ficc friþ gart, fyrr þan Awair Strabain 
af Alfa socn, hann gierþi fyrsti friþ wiþr Swia kunung."

"Many kings fought against Gutland during heathen times; though the 
Gutars always won and their ways were kept. Then the Gutars
sent many envoys to Sweden, though no one managed to bring peace 
before Awair Strabain from Alfa. He was the first one who
brought peace with the King of Sweden."


Maybe somebody can tell us whether this is the same or similar to 
Gothic. I have messaged a friend at the Institute of Linguistics at 
Stockholm University, but have not yet had an answer.

cheers,

Dirk











> 
> --- In gothic-l at y..., dirk at s... wrote:
> > --- In gothic-l at y..., Tore Gannholm <tore.gannholm at s...> wrote:
> > > Everybody who can read Gothic should be able to read the 
Gutasaga 
> in 
> > its
> > > original language Gutnish (Gotlandic).
> > > There is a German translation but no English translation.
> > > Tore
> > 
> > 
> > Hi Tore,
> > 
> > that is very interesting, because that implies that Gothic is not 
an 
> > extinct language after all, given that there are still some 2000 
> > speakers of Gutnish (Gotlandic) around. Can you provide some 
> examples 
> > of the Gutnish language Tore. 
> > 
> > I only found the following numerals in Old-Gutnish:
> > 
> > 
> > 1. ann
> > 2. tueir
> > 3. ?
> > 4. fiaurir
> > 5. ?
> > 6. ?
> > 7. siau
> > 
> > 
> > I don't know Gothic, so perhaps somebody on the list could tell 
us, 
> > whether this is sufficiently close to Gothic to allow for mutual 
> > intelligibility. Does anybody have the Gothic numerals 1-10?
> > 
> > cheers,
> > Dirk
> >


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