[gothic-l] Gaut/Gapt

[babeck at ALPHALINK.COM.AU]

Hails,
	I don't think it has been mentioned before, but the
combination 'pt' does not occur in native Gothic words.  In a search
of Wulfila's Luke, John, Timothy and the Skeireins, the cluster only
occurred once in the phrase: "alja in Saraipta Seidonais du qinon
widuwon." - "except only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a
woman who was a widow."  - Luke 4:26.
In words where one would perhaps expect "pt", we actually get "ft",
e.g. ga-skafts, creation; from ga-skapjan, to create.
Bearing this in mind, I believe that the probability is that Gapt was
originally a misreading of some earlier document that has been
perpetuated by later copyists.  This situation is not at all unknown -
 the name Boadicea has amost completely supplanted the original
correct spelling of Boudicca.  Is it possible that Jordanes took some
of his information for the Getica from a lost Gothic text written in
Wulfila's alphabet?  This might explain the confusion between the
Gothic "u" and "p".
Cheers,
Brian Beck



You are a member of the Gothic-L list.  To unsubscribe, send a blank email to <gothic-l-unsubscribe at egroups.com>.

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/