[gothic-l] Re: Greek

[llama_nom]

--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, "Larry J. Swain" <theswain at o...> 
wrote:
> 
> 
> A discussion on a related list brought up a language question for 
me:
> what if any loan words from Greek are there in Gothic?  After all 
> since our principle source for the language is the translation of 
the 
> Bible from Greek, one would expect a few.  IS there a list 
anywhere?
> 
> Larry Swain



Hi Larry,

I don't know of a complete list, but if you wanted to compile one G. 
Koebler's dictionary would probably be the place to start 
("Gotisches Woerterbuch" 
http://www.koeblergerhard.de/publikat.html ).  The main source of 
Greek loans is of course proper names - but apart from that there 
are surprisingly few.  These tend to be technical religious terms, 
many ultimately from Aramaic:

diakaunus 'deacon'
apaustaulus 'apostle'
daimonareis 'devil-possessed person'
aggilus 'angel'
aipistaule 'epistle, letter'
papa 'priest, presbyter'
praitauriaun 'pretorium, judgement-hall'
praizbytairei 'church authority, elders'
synagoge 'synagogue'
sabbato, sabbatus 'sabbath'
raka 'good-for-nothing'
aiwaggeljo 'gospel, the Christian community'
alabalstraun 'alabaster container'
gazaufylakio 'temple treasury'
kaurbaunan 'temple treasury'
kaurban 'a donation to the temple'
aiwlaugia 'donation'

Sometimes the same word is borrowed in one place, but translated at 
another, e.g.

diabaulus/diabulus 'devil' (besides the native: unhultho, unhultha & 
skohsl)
taitrarkes 'tetrarch, one of the 4 governors of Palestine in Roman 
times' (also translated fidur-ragineis)
laigaion 'Legion' (name of demon possessed man, in Mark's gospel - 
but in Luke, the same Gk. word legiwn is rendered with the native 
Go. harjis)

It seems to be a deliberate practise to translate Greek where 
possible, but leave Aramaic unaltered:

Gaiaina 'Gehennah, hell' (but also: halja 'hell, death' - in this 
case the Greek a(des = halja, but the Aramaic derived Geenna is 
simply transcribed)
rabbei 'Rabbi' (but laisareis, talzjands 'teacher')
ailoe ailoe lima sabakthani 'my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken 
me' (the following explanation of the meaning is fully translated)

Most often even religious concepts are translated into native words: 
himins 'heaven', alhs 'temple', maithms 'gift to temple', 
sauths 'sacrifice', gudja 'priest', sinista 'elder', etc.

Far more common than outright loans, probably, are calques (loan 
translations) like fidurragineis - but without other texts it's hard 
to gauge the true extent of these.  Curiously, a lot of the not so 
technical Greek loans already existing in Gothic at the time of the 
Bible translation seem to have come through the medium of Latin, as 
far as it's possible to tell, e.g. skaurpjo 'scorpion' (cf. 
Kortland "The Origins of the Goths" - 
http://www.kortlandt.nl/publications/art 198e.pdf ).

Another set of Greek loans are the names of the days of the week.  
Though not recorded in Gothic, Greek based day-names are thought to 
have come via Gothic to the South German dialects:

Tuesday: *ARJAUSSDAGS, or *Areinsdags ( < Gk. arhos h(mera ) - NHG 
Arestag, Ertag, Irtag, Irchtag, Erchtag, Erichtag
Thursday: *PINTADAGS, or *paintedags ( < Gk. pempth h(mera ) - 
Pfinztag - NHG dialects: Pfincztag, Pfünztag, Pfinztag, Pfinstag
Friday: *PAREINSDAGS ( < Gk. paraskeuh ) - Pol. pia,tek (That comma 
is supposed to be a nasal mark under the "a"), Cz. Pátek
Saturday: *SAMBATODAGS ( < Gk. Sambaton ) - OHG sambaztag > NHG 
Samstag; OBulg. Sabota, Rum. Sambata, Hung. Szombat, Pers. Samba

Hope that helps,

Llama Nom

P.S.
Useful links:

The declension of Greek nouns in Gothic:
http://www.nthuleen.com/papers/755gothpaper.html

Other Gothic dictionaries & glossaries:
http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~kurisuto/germanic/language_resources.html

The Gothic Corpus:
http://www.wulfila.be
http://titus.uni-frankfurt.de/indexe.htm

An essay emphasizing (overemphasizing?) the artificiality of the 
Gothic Bible & its dependence on the Greek original:
http://www.shakespeare.uk.net/journal/1_3/davis1_3.html





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