[gothic-l] Re: Cagots (how pure were the Goths?)

[faltin2001]

--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, "Paul Bardunias" <Bardunias at a...>
wrote:
> > ... surprisingly enough we hear quite often of Goths with
> ethnically  mixed parentage.
> > Cheers
> > Dirk
>
>      The role of the Alans in relation to the Goths interests me.
We
> see them attatched to many of the migrating peoples.  The influence
> of earlier Sarmatic groups seems pretty clear on the Gothic
military.
> The sort of "overlord" model we see with the Huns, and later with
the
> varoius turkic groups and the Slavs, seems innapropriate, but
perhaps
> was the case for the Sarmatians and Goths at some point during the
> time between their arrival in eastern Europe and their subsequent
> migrations.
>
> Does anyone know of surviving Alannic texts? Other than the
evidence
> from East Aryan sounding names, many the wives and daughters of
> Goths, do we know what language the Alans spoke during the
migrations?
>
> If we ask how Germanic were the Goths, it may be important to know
> just how Alannic were the Alans.




Hi Paul,

good points! H. Wolfram (History of the Goths) stated repeatedly that
the Goths, already at the Danube were mostly bilingual Gothic/Latin
speakers, which likely explains why they lost their Gothic so quickly
in Spain. Yet, when Latin was the lingua franca between Goths and
Romans, Gothic might have been the lingua france among various
barbarian tribes. Hence, Alans like Saphrax etc. were likely able to
express themselves in Gothic and their native Alanic/Iranian
language. Hence, ethnic characteristics were probably amorphous
rather then clear-cut and language may not have been the defining
element. As I stated earlier the Visigoths of Spain were already in
the first half of the 6th century called Valagoths by Franks and
others. Vala- being related to the modern German word
Welsch/Walch/Walach, meaning foreign and especially Romanic/Latin
speaking.


Cheers
Dirk





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