a Gothic poem (verse 2)--articles & demonstratives

[llama_nom]

--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, "rausch_roman" <aranwe at m...> wrote:

> 
> >So possibly: so swero rûna leike; so swero leike rûna.
> >Or leaving out articles altogether: swera rûna leike.
> 
> And what about: 'Swêra rûna þize leike' (or 'Rûna
> swêra þize leike')? 
> This would be the same construction as: 'allans þiudinassuns
> þis 
> midjungardis' - 'all the kingdoms of the world' (Luke 4:5) (by the 
> way: 'Midgard'='world' in the Bible? Interesting..) The same goes
> for: 
> 'wein galáuf þize reike' (?)

Good example.  I'll have to think about this.  I see that the 
article/demonstrative regularly appears also with 'fairhvus' "the 
world" or "this world".  E.g. John 9,5 is translated "the" in the 
King James Bible and the Good News Bible.  It's translated "this" in 
Ephesians 2,2 in the KJB, but "the" in the GNB:

A bi þizai aldai þis fairhvaus, bi reik waldufnjis luftaus
B bi þizai aldai þis aiwis, bi reik waldufnjis luftaus
KATA TON AIWNA TOU KOSMOU TOUTOU,
KATA TON ARXONTA THS ECOUSIAS TOU AEROS
"according to the course of this world,
according to the prince of the power of the air"

I wonder if we could paraphrase the Gothic: "according to [the 
fashions/norms/mores of] this [particular] age/time/generation of 
this [sinful physical] world [as opposed to the good spiritual 
world]".  Does the idiom imply belief in other worlds or at least an 
alternative to the/this world?  Or is that reading too much into 
it?  Maybe the use of an article is to some extent conventional with 
words for "world".

At 1Cor 1,20 'handugein þis fairhvaus' THN SOFIAN TOU KOSMOU "the 
wisdom of this world" is contrasted with the higher wisdom of God.  
Similarly 2Cor 7,10 is a contrast, even though the KJB has "the 
world".  The "sorrow of the world" ´H...TOU KOSMOU LUPH 'þis 
fairhvaus saurga" is being compared to 'so bi guþ saurga' "godly 
sorrow".  2Cor 5,6 whilst we are at home in the body 'in þamma 
leika' EN TW SWMATI, we are absent from the Lord.  Again, "the" but 
with a notion of contrast verging on "this".  But Ephesians 1,4, 
following the Greek, 'faur gasatein fairhvaus' KATABOLHS 
KOSMOU "before the foundation of the world".

In the Skeireins, Marchand's translation has "this world" for 'þizos 
manasedais'.  Often (but not always) 'sa' "the" or "this" or "that" 
has an implication that the noun in question isn't the only thing of 
its kind, and therefore needs to be distinguished as "the particular 
one": "the/this world we live in", etc., or else "the/that one just 
mentioned", the one that we're already talking about?

Compare 1Cor 12,14 jaþ-þan leik [TO SWMA] nist ains liþus, ak 
managai.  15 jabai qiþai fotus þatei ni im handus, ni im þis leikis 
[TOU SWMATOS]...

Both instances are "the body" in English, but only the second "the" 
is expressed in Gothic.  Similarly recapitulative perhaps Gal 6,8.  
The famous example of this is J 10,11 ik im hairdeis gods; hairdeis 
sa goda saiwala seina lagjiþ faur lamba "I am the good sheperd; the 
good shepherd lays down his life for [his] sheep", both = ´O POIMHN 
´O KALOS.  J 8,32 sunja...so sunja, I think I already mentioned.  
Greek and English have articles for both.  Another interesting one, 
J 18,37-38, where a recapitulative article appears even where Greek 
has no article.  Jesus says 'hvazuh saei ist sunjos' PAS ´O WN EK 
THS ALHQEIAS "whoever is of the truth"; Pilot replies 'hva ist so 
sunja' TI ESTIN ALHQEIA "what is truth" (no article in KJB "what is 
truth", or GNB "and what is truth").

The other instances of 'þis leikis' x2 and 'þata leik' x4 are a 
particular body, that of Jesus, except for J 6,63 þata leik [´H 
SARC] ni boteiþ waiht "the flesh profiteth nothing" (i.e. flesh 
doesn't do any good).  This is interesting, because it's abstract, 
much like your phrase, and doesn't seem to refer back to a recently 
mentioned 'leik'.  For "the body", "the flesh" with no article, see 
J 6,52; J 8,15; Mt 6,22; Col2,19; R 7,15; R 7,25; R 8,1-10, and so 
on.  This seems to be the normal way.  (All but the first of these 
examples are abstract).




> The word seems to be pure Gothic, without cognates in other 
Germanic 
> languages. I wonder whether it's connected to something ... 
> galáubeins?


And 'liufs' maybe (by ablaut)?  Cf. the two meanings of MnE dear, 
NHG teuer.




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