Hello

[Fredrik]

> The angel who comes to Mary greets her with the imperative verb
> 'fagino' "rejoice" or "be happy". This translates Greek CAIRE, as 
does
> 'hails' when the soldiers mock Jesus, saying 'hails, þiudan(s) 
Iudaie'
> "hail, king of the Jews".
> 


OK, but it's kinda weird if one would greet today by saying "be 
happy" so I wouldnt prefer that one.

> Busbecq's list of Crimean Gothic words and expressions includes
> 'knauen tag' "good day", which in Biblical Gothic would be 'godana
> dag' - accusative because it's really short for something like "I 
wish
> you a good day" or "have a good day".
> 

Godana dag is ofcourse a good one. Eventhough it's not known from the 
bible it's similar to modern germanic languages, and also crimean 
gothic.

But a need for smth shorter is obvious. And hails fills that need I 
think. Just as english Hi or hello does.

> > I think it is most logic to use vocative now when you say it. But 
> > haven't most people here used dative?
> 
> True, but I think they're probably basing this idioms in their own
> languages, including Modern English. The other old Germanic 
languages
> use nominative, declining the adjective for gender and number. 
Here's
> a good example from the Old Norse poem Sigrdrífumál: Heill dagr.
> Heilir dags synir. Heil nótt ok nipt. [...] Heilir æsir. Heilar
> ásynjur. Heil sjá in fjölnýta fold. "Hail, day. Hail, day's sons.
> Hail, night and [her] daughter [...] Hail, gods. Hail, goddesses.
> Hail, you bountiful earth." You could also translate this into 
Modern
> English as "Hail to the gods [...] Hail to the bountiful earth" etc.
> 

Yea, maybe the use of dative is from their native languages, perhaps 
a common error.

> > > 'fram' is always used with the dative, as far as I know, except 
> > where
> > > a noun refering to someone's house is implied: gaggiþ sums 
manne 
> > fram
> > > þis fauramaþleis swnagogais "a man came from (the house) of the 
> > ruler
> > > of the synagogue" (L 8:49).
> > > 
> > 
> > So if I say "I come from Sweden" or "I am going away from the 
house" 
> > whould I use dative or genitive then?
> 
> Dative for both. The genitive is only used where you're talking 
about
> a particular person's house and the word for "house" is left 
unspoken.
> So 'fram' never really governs the genitive, it just happens to look
> as if it does in that example because the word for "house" has been
> left out.
> 
> laistidedun afar Iesua fram Galeilaia
> "followed Jesus from Galilee" (dative)
> 
> qemun fram þamma swnagogafada
> "they came from the ruler of the synagogue" (dative)
> 
> raus fram winda wagidata
> "a reed blown by the wind" (dative)
> 
> fram þizai hveilai jainai
> "from that time (forth)" (dative)
> 
> ni faraiþ us garda in gard
> "don't go from house to house" (dative).
> 
> I couldn't find any examples of 'fram garda'. They just seemed to
> prefer 'us garda'.
> 
> us garda Daweidis
> "from the house of David"
> 
> But:
> 
> fram þis fauramaþleis swnagogais
> "from [the house] of the ruler of the synagogue"
> 

OK. I am now totaly convinced here.

> > If the singular form goleins is attested and so also the verb 
goljan. 
> > Then we probably can assume that goleins would be goleineis in 
> > plural, right? Since other nouns ending in -eins and made from 
verbs 
> > do end in -eineis in plural?
> 
> -einos. Abstract feminine nouns in -eins, -ons and -ains are 
declined
> as i-stems, except that the -eins nouns have nominative and genitive
> plural like o-stems: -einos, -eino. So the nominative plural of
> 'goleins' would be 'goleinos', but whether Gothic speakers used the
> word for "greetings" as a greeting, or whether this would have 
sounded
> bizarre to them, is hard to know.
>

But I was right that it is an i-stem. The exception with ending in -
os and -o was unknown to me. So thnx for that.

It would probably be weird to use the noun to greet if it is an 
initial greeting, but when ending a message I think it is acceptable, 
just as in modern languages such as english and swedish to, where you 
could say "hälsningar *your name*".

As you might understand havent I based any of my suggestions on 
sources from gothic texts.


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