[gothic-l] Re: (non) Gothic peoples

[czobor at CANTACUZINO.RO]

Hi Steve,

always when I have read that the Alans were germanicized, I understood
that from the language point of view: being associated and becoming
mixed with various East-Germanic elements, they adopted an
East-Germanic dialect (more or less similar to Gothic). That does not
mean necessarily that they abandoned their original Iranic language.
More probably they become bilingual (Alanic/Gothic), at least the
cultivated individuals, who had to learn Gothic in order to understand
Wulfila's Bible, since the Alans adopted the Arianism. Probably
Gothic was used as a literary language, while Iranic Alanic (with
Germanic lexical influence) as everyday speech. That is what suggests
to my immagination an assertion like "the Alans became germanicized".

Francisc

--- In gothic-l at y..., Alburysteve at a... wrote:
> Hi Francisc, Bertil
>
> Statelments like:
> >  Yes, the Alans were probably germanicized.
> and
> >  (Longobards) and a non-Germanic people (Alans; it seems that the
Alans
> >  that migrated westwards until Spain and accompanied the Vandals
in
> >  North-Africa were more or less germanicized).
>
> leave me wondering, what, in concrete terms, does "germanicized"
mean?
> Certainly Alans accompanied the Vandals in their peregrinations but
similar
> processes would have applied to the Sarmations, Huns, etc who were
caught up
> in the various movements resulting in the Visi/Ostrogothic entities
of the
> fifth and sixth century.  While I have seen the term used, it's
rarely
> accompanied by a concise definition of what it would mean to an
individual of
> Sarmation, Alan or Hunnic extraction.  Do the authors intend it to
be
> synonymous with acculturation or is it something different?  Anyone
know?
>
> Curiously yours,
>
> Steve O'Brien
> Albury,  Ontario


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