nasal abbreviations + thatei / ei before indirect speech

[akoddsson]

Hailai,

> > He dismisses the idea that the construction can be
shown to be native to Gothic by recourse to the use of 'at' before
direct speech in Old Norse legal texts.

> > Incidentally, on the choice of tense in indirect speech, see also
Streitberg 356.  He just comments that the Gothic translation mostly
imitates the Greek in this respect too.  There are supposedly a few
instances of apparent differences, but he points out that these are
probably based on some variant Greek text.

If Gothic did not really use ei in indirect speech, as used by 
Wulfila, then what did it use? Sure, I grant that Wulfila simply 
translated the words of a greek text, but at the same it seems 
unlikely that he would have developed a usage entirely foreign to 
native gothic speakers, who were, after all, his audience. What 
strikes me most here, in the explanation above, is that it suggests no 
alternative usage, presumably more native to Gothic. On the other 
hand, if the use of ei was native to gothic in this function, one 
imagines that Wulfila's audience would have no problems understanding 
him, even if his translations were thought oddly worded and foreign to 
some extent in syntax, word-usage, etc. He was, after all, translating 
concepts and culture entirely foreign to Goths and Gothic. Thus, while 
I certainly suspect that Wulfila stretched the meanings of words, and 
was perhaps somewhat novel syntactically, I do not imagine that he 
developed new usage in indirect speach without any precedent. Am I 
alone in this supposition?

Now, about the usage of ei, both in indirect speach (see also the 
comments about norse 'at' in legal texts above) and as a relative, not 
much is known comparatively speaking, as the usage is only attested in 
gothic. Now, it so happens that I have researched this topic to some 
extent, as I thought it needed in my investigations on the development 
of germanic pronominal development. Now, all germanic languages have 
different relative usages, as attested. Compare the German use of der, 
OE the, (forms presumably from the demonstrative *the- stem), ON es, 
Go. ei, etc.. Thus, one might logically ask, what was the original 
germanic relative usage, if any? In short, the answer to this question 
is that no one knows. We lack early attestations, Gothic aside, which 
could shed light on this development. Literature on earlies stages of 
the northwest germanic languages, which I have read, generally avoids 
the topic, refers to Gothic, or offers no suggestions here. Clearly, 
few seem to be willing to risk their head here or offer suggestions. 
Now Voyles is one exception. In his reconstruction of the northwest 
germanic pronominal system from about 200AD, he offers the following 
suggestion about the origin of ON es, which is used as an indeclinable 
relative pronoun for all persons, cases and genders in ON - that its 
use as a relative was probably from iz + i (long). Hmmm. Now, I think 
that this makes sense, and I offer the following suggestion on my own: 
if Gothic usage of ei preserves the original PGmc relative usage, as 
perhaps also indirect, then this might account for why these usages 
are so different in all of the other attested languages. Simply put, 
if PGmc *ei were lost independently in the other germanic languages, 
then each language would be forced to develope its own usage with 
regards to the relative, and likely also in indirect speach, if Gothic 
has anything to say here. Now, on the face of it, this appears to be 
exactly what happened. Thus, about the use of 'at' in Norse legal 
texts (see above), I offer the following suggestion: that it developed 
from earlier *that + ei, but survived as 'at' (earlier 'that' is also 
attested in this usage) in later usage. Similarly, the naked use of ei 
as a relative and in indirect speach in Gothic could be an inherited 
feature in Gothic, all other changes aside. 

Comments welcome :)

Regards,
Konrad






You are a member of the Gothic-L list.  To unsubscribe, send a blank email to <gothic-l-unsubscribe at egroups.com>. 
Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gothic-l/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    gothic-l-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/