Expressing age [Was: Hallo hallo!]

[Johann von Messer]

Yes, I tried to take all of these things in mind as best as I could. I
have Wright's book "Grammar of the Gothic Language," and I used many,
many websites in trying to express these sayings. Like for the lines
"I was born..." I get from the Gothic Dictionary at
http://www.oe.eclipse.co.uk/nom/egdhome.htm that to say that is to use
gabaurans with the conjugated form of wairþan. Unfortunately, no one
has gotten to me on the other lines yet, but I've serious doubt that
most if not all of them are correct. I tried using your very first
example in the lines you bring into question, as well as your third
with the forming of compound words using wintrus.

Would it be just so much more simple in the sense of saying for us and
in comparing to modern languages to use haban as in your second
example? In my certain case, the inflection rules you specified do not
seem to apply other than placing them in the correct case.

But thank you so much for the help and the examples. It's so much
better to hear it from another person's perspective than something
written so many years ago.

--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, Rydwlf <mitsuhippon at ...> wrote:
>
> Dear Johann,
> 
> As far as I know the extant forms used to express age in Wulfila
bible follow these three structures:
> 
> - 'wisan' ("to be") + 'jere' + numeral (Genitive).
> As in Mark 5:42: 'was auk jere twalibe'.
> "for she was twelve years old".
> Or in Luke 3:23: 'jah silba was Iesus swe jere þrije tigiwe uf
gakunþai'.
> "And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age".
> In this sentence 'þrije' is Masc. Gen. and 'tigiwe' is Gen. Pl.
> These sentences mean literally "for she was of twelve years" and
"and Jesus himself began to be about of thirty 
> 
> - haban ("to have") + numeral (Accusative) + 'jere'.
> As in John, 8:57: 'fimf tiguns jere nauh ni habais'.
> "you're not yet fifty years old" .
>  
> - wisan + numeral (Nom.) + 'wintrus' (Nominative, "winter").
> Luke 2:42: 'jah biþe warþ twalibwintrus'
> "and when he was twelve years old" (lit. "twelve winters").
> This is really a compound; instead of 'twalif', 'twalib' is used(cf.
'twalibim', Dative).
> 
> It is good to bear in mind the special rules that apply to the
declination of numerals. 1, 2 and 3 are declinable in all cases and
genders. 4 - 15 usually remain uninflected, but in some parts of the
text they appear inflected (following i-declension with Dat. in -im
and Gen. in -e). For tens, 20-90, the structure is 'numeral from 2 to
9' + 'tigjus' (which is Nom. Pl. of 'tigus', "decade"). If you have to
decline a ten, you decline 'tigus' in the needed case ('tuguns' is
Acc. Pl. and 'tigiwe' is Gen. Pl.) according to the verb (wisan or
haban).  The first numeral is declined in Masc. and the same case as
'tigus' (if 2 or 3, since 4 - 9 are undeclinable), as deducted from
Luke 3:23 (I don't know if other rules apply).
> 
> I've probably missed one or two things but I think this summary can
be helpful. Hope so!
> 
> Rydwlf   
> 
> 
> 
> --- On Sat, 12/20/08, Johann von Messer <furry_von_messer at ...> wrote:
> 
> > From: Johann von Messer <furry_von_messer at ...>
> > Subject: [gothic-l] Re: Hallo hallo!
> > To: gothic-l at yahoogroups.com
> > Date: Saturday, December 20, 2008, 5:58 PM
> > Wow... I didn't think the -lif suffix was used in other
> > numbers other 
> > than eleven and twelve (and maybe thirteen.)
> > 
> > And dative plural for jer? I thought it'd be some
> > really odd 
> > grammatical way of saying it. Something like 'I have X
> > years' or the 
> > like. But thank you for this! I've something to work
> > off of now. :D
> > 
> > How about the rest of the stuff?
> > 
> > --- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, OSCAR HERRERA
> > <duke.co@> wrote:
> > >
> > > ik im ahtauliff jeram....i am 18 years.....ik im
> > niunliff jeram...i 
> > am nineteen years old...
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > ------------------------------------
> > 
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> > 
> > 
> >
>


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