New Member Introduction

llama_nom 600cell at OE.ECLIPSE.CO.UK
Tue Feb 12 18:26:34 UTC 2008


Welcome to gothic-l, Ian.  I hope it lives up to your expectations!

> Hails allos thiudos,

Now, let the quibbling commence... In other old Germanic languages,
it's normal for cognates of Gothic 'hails' to agree with the person or
persons to whom the greeting is addressed.  E.g. in the Old Norse poem
Sigrdrífumál:

Heill dagr! (masculine singular)
Heilir dags synir! (masculine plural)
Heil nótt ok nift! (feminine singular)

Hail day!
Hail sons of day!
Hail night and her kinswoman!

The word is only used twice in this way in the Gothic corpus: jah
qeþun: hails þiudans Iudaie! "and they said: hail, king of the
Jews"(John 19:3); jah dugunnun goljan ina: hails, þiudan Iudaie! "and
they began to salute him: hail, king of teh Jews" (Mark 15:18), each
time in the masculine nominative singular, as it would in other
Germanic languages. So it's not possible to know for sure, but most
likely it would have been marked for number and gender just like other
adjectives, thus: hailos allos þiudos!

LN

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