[gothic-l] Re: Yiddish is based on Ostrogothic

[dirk at SMRA.CO.UK]

> 1. Wulfila's Gothic Bible (written in Visigothic) was easily
> understood by the Ostrogoths and also by other East-Germanic peoples
> who adopted the Arianism (Vandals, Burgundians). The failure of the
> Franks to be converted to Arianism is explained, among other
reasons,
> also by the fact that, Franconian being a West-Germanic language
> considerably different from Gothic, the Franks had difficulties in
> understanding the language of the Gothic Bible.


Hi Francisc,

I agree with you on the main thrust of your argument, however, I don't
 think that Franks adopted Catholicism and not Arianism because they
had difficulties in understanding the Gothic Bible.

The Franks in Gaul adopted Catholicsim, for at least two reasons: 1)
Arianism had always been stronger in the Eastern Empire, while
Catholicism was stronger in the West and 2), by the time of their
conversion (late 5th century) Arianism had in general fallen out of
favour. Note for example that the East Germanic Burgundians adopted
Catholicism and also the Visigoths switched to Catholicsim in the 580s
AD. Moreover, Arianism had never placed a big emphasis on missionary
work other than Catholicism.

>From a language point of view, there are a few things to note too:

1) If incomprehensibility of the Gothic bible-language formed such a
big obstacle to West Germanic Franks to adopt Arianism, than the
Latin of the Catholic bible would surely have formed an even bigger
hurdle especially in the Frankish region on the East side of the Rhine
and in Alamannia.

2) In fact, the examples of the different Paternosters in different
Germanic dialects provided in an earlier message, shows that 4th
century Frankish was probably not very different from 4th century
Gothic.

cheers
Dirk





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