[gothic-l] Translating the New Testament into Gothic

[edmundfairfax@yahoo.ca [gothic-l]]

One of the (many) problems with Koebler's dictionary is the overanaylsis of words and then the listing of the broken-down elements separately as if there were in fact attested independent elements. (Since 'undar-' is a well-attested morpheme, he assumes then that weisei must have been a separate element.) The danger in this approach becomes most apparent when applied to a more familiar language, namely, Mod. English, such that one analyzes 'werewolf' as consisting of two independent nouns, and then list 'were' as an independent substantive, which it, of course, is not; or alternatively take 'cranberry' and list 'cran' as a separate noun as well. Such a method is outrightly misleading about usage. There is simply no guarantee that weisei was an independent word in Wulfilian Gothic. And it seems unwarranted to use it as such simply because of Koebler's questionable lexicographical practices. 

 As to 'frodei,' it translates 'sophia' (L2,52) only once; more often it corresponds to 'intellect, understanding, sensibleness, prudence.' And 'snutrei' is extant only twice. In contrast, 'handugei' translates 'sophia' eighteen times. Thus, it seems fairly clear that the word of choice to translate 'sophia' / 'wisdom' is in fact handugei.
 

 Edmund
 

---In Gothic-L at yahoogroups.com, <anheropl0x at ...> wrote :

 If I might point out, Edmund, Köbler's dictionary does have handugei as wisdom. As well as snutrei, (theoretical) weisei, and frodei.



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