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

[czobor at CANTACUZINO.RO]

Hi Dirk,

I said only "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." This is not my idea, I have read it somewhere, probably
in Wolfram's "Die Germanen". In any case, this was not presented
there as the principal reason for the Franks to prefer the
Catholicism, it was just "among other reasons". The idea was that
because of their West Germanic language the Franks had less linguistic
affinity to Wulfila's Bible than, let's say, the Vandals or the
Burgundians.
Regarding the language, the examples of the different Paternosters are
suggesting me that they were already different, even if closely
related, languages, and not merely dialcts of a single language.

Francisc


--- In gothic-l at y..., dirk at s... wrote:
>
> > 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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