Toledo

[OSCAR HERRERA]

i can only say with dispute in the case with faltin ......think about all the gothic chieftains thru the centuries in being their names as germanic-gothic......it sounds odd that  all these gothic kings thru time have gothic names but their speaking another language.......oscar

Michael Erwin <merwin at btinternet.com> wrote:          We might compare, as best we can, reconstructed linguistic frontiers 
from c. 300 with those from c. 800. The West Germanic languages did 
expand, Anglo-Frisian largely replacing Latin and Welsh in the 
British Lowlands, and Dutch-German expanding into the Low Countries, 
Rhineland, Switzerland, and the upper Danube to the Alps. The East 
Germanic languages seem to disappear outside the Crimea and possibly 
other enclaves as the Slavic languages spread... Arabic also spreads.

Gothic never had the religious importance of Latin or Arabic. If it 
was not the majority language in Gutþiuda, it was the most important 
(and the various histories nowhere suggest local language/trade 
language/prestige language divisions), was adopted for that reason, 
and was supplemented by Greek and Latin for the same reason as early 
as Wulfila's own exile.

The size and demographics of the exile groups remain largely unknown. 
Refugee populations tend to have slightly higher proportions of women 
and children than most populations, and the same may have applied to 
the refugees of 376. I think there were multiple mass migrations into 
the Balkans, starting with 376, and smaller migrations, starting in 
348, which could have changed the linguistic landscape in the Balkans 
just as other migrations changed the linguistic landscape in England. 
(Even if the total migration only amounts to 10-30% of the regional 
population). However, Slavic-speakers repeated the process in the 
same parts of the Balkans. I think there were much smaller, and more 
characteristically military, campaigns into Italy, Gaul, and Spain.

The name Totila, as has been noted elsewhere, is not old Gothic. It 
involves an additional sound-shift. This suggests living, primarily 
spoken, language, as well as contact with West-Germanic dialects.

         


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