[gothic-l] Gothic in Relation to Proto-Germanic and more

[Bertil Häggman]

Esteemed listmembers,

Thaking the opportunity this summer sataurday morning to
convey a few of Lehmann's views on early Gothic:

"According to tradition the Goths maintained an aristocratic
culture that reflected many characteristics of Indo-European society. 
They supported poets who preserved accounts of their valiant men,
such as the king, Ermanaric, who came to be central figures
in the medieval literature of the West and North Germanic peoples.
The poets created a major role for Attila, ruler of the Huns, glorified as
Etzel in the High German Nibelugenlied, and for Theoderic, the
founder of the Ostrogothic empire in northern Italy, celebrated as
Dietrich of Bern (Verona). The language maintains many military,
legal and political terms, such as draúhti- 'army' in derivatives, *mathl
'assembly', and the possibility of creating poetic terms known in other
Indo-European literary traditions, as in the compound mana-seths 'world'
< 'seed of men'. Such retentions support the view that Gothic can be taken
as the chief source for reconstructing Proto-Germanic."

Gothically

Bertil



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/