[gothic-l] Old Gutnish

[Bertil Häggman]

Francisc,

These words are of course only a beginning.
We seem to seek different solutions. To seek
the etymology of Old Gutnish words is one way,
make the type of comparison you have
made is another. I believe in the end the first
will be the securer road to a scientific answer of
the question.

Your explanation underneath is interesting and
worth a closer scrutiny. Some linguists have
put Gothic in the North Germanic branch.
If the migrants, as you suggest, spoke Gothic,
is of course a possibility as a migration
of Goths is envisioned from Gutland.

A gradual influence from Swedish and Danish
took place but one must remember that Gutland until 1361
was a well organised autonomous republic even
though a treaty with Sweden existed. In 1361 Gutland
was invaded by Danish King Valdemar Atterdag, who
put an end to Guthnic independence but it was
not until the 16th century that Gutland became
a Danish province. More knowledge than mine
is necessary to follow the gradual influence of Danish
and then Swedish. But the basic fact is that the Gutnish
language is but a small remnant. Swedish dominates
all public affairs on Gutland.

Thank you for your further interest and hopefully
a preliminary comparative analysis could be published
relatively soon while the complete work will probably
have to wait for years to come to be published.

Will return with more examples of possible Old Gutnish-Gothic
word relations.

Gothically

Bertil

Yes, professional and objective. I will try to analyze those examples
this weekend. But I think that a few isolated words that sound like
Gothic can not change the overall character of Gutnish that, for me,
is clearly Scandinavic. I found also an explanation for this:
In Gotland was initially spoken Gothic. A part (pprobably the grater
part) of the Goths og Gotland crossed the Baltic sea and migrated
south- and westwards, becoming the Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Gepids,
Gothi Minores, Crimean Goths, etc.
Those who chosed to remain in their homeland, Gotland, were gradually
"scandinavized" linguistically, maybe by arrival of settlers from the
Swedish mainland, maybe through political dominance of Sweden, or
because of both reasons, so that the attested Old Gutnish language was
already an East Scandinavic language with some Gothic residues, but
the inhabitants preserved their old name (Guta "Goth", Gutland "land
of Goths").

Thank you very much for appreciation. Since I'm only an amateur, I can
not judge how competent I am, and the appreciation of you and others
really encourage me.

Thank you very much.

I can read and speak English, French and German without any problem.
I understand also a little Spanish, Hungarian, and Russian (and also
can read in these languages with the help of an dictionary).




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