[gothic-l] Re: A new word, Gothic birds, etc.

[Sigi Vandewinkel]

Hi Fredrik, 

I might have the answer to your question: 

> About the word for president 1223 had faursitands, and i thought of 
> faurasitands. Is faur better than faura in this case?

There is some explaining to it, though, so I could perhaps save you
some time and present you with the conclusion right away: I think it
should be "faurasitands". 

And now for why I think so. 

"Faur" and "Faura" are quite similar in meaning, but there is a simple
feature keeping them strictly apart. "Faura" denotes the area in front
of an intrinsically oriented entity, and "faur" the area in front of
an entity that receives an orientation in context.  Intrinsically
oriented entities are people, animals, chairs, cars, and so on, that
have one particular side that is their inherent front. They can be
looked at from various viewpoints, but the front side stays the same.
Contextually oriented entities are seas, roads, cardboard boxes,
tables, and so on: they can be assigned a different front side
depending on their position or the viewpoint that you're taking. (A
simple example: the road lying before me is what is behind the driver
coming from the other side.) 

In Gothic this difference is reflected in the case required by each
preposition: "faura" requires the dative; "faur" the accusative. 

   1) jah standandei faura fotum is aftaro greitandei, 
   dugann natjan fotuns is tagram jah skufta haubidis seinis 
   biswarb jah kukida fotum is jah gasalboda þamma balsana 
   (Lk 7:38). 
   And standing in front of his feet she wept, and she began 
   to wash his feet with tears and dried them with the hairs 
   on her head and kissed his feet and balmed them with 
   balm.

The sinful woman is standing "faura" Jesus' feet (dative) because feet
have an intrinsic front side. In Wulfila's Bible spatial "faura" only
occurs with people (or metonymical expressions referring to people,
such as "feet"). 

   2) jah galaiþ aftra faur marein, jah all manageins 
   iddjedun du imma, jah laisida ins (Mk 2:13).
   And He went back in front of the sea (to this side of the 
   sea), and all the multitudes went towards Him, and He 
   taught them. 

"Faur" here can be best translated as "this side of" -- compare "jah
galaiþ hindar marein" - He went 'behind' the sea, i.e. to the other
side of the sea. The sea does not have an intrinsic front: that's just
the side that happens to be closest to you. Incidentally, you cannot
tell whether "marein" is an accusative or a dative case (since they're
the same), but this example is perhaps clearer: 

   3) warþ þan, miþþanei nehva was is Iaireikon, blinda sums 
   sat faur wig du aihtron. (Lk 18:35). 
   It now happened that, while He was near Jericho, some 
   blind guy sat begging on this side of the road. 

A road does not have an intrinsic front or back area: the "faur wig"
(accusative) happens to be that side closest to Jesus -- His side of
the road. 

The abstract uses of "faura/faur" (disadvantage/advantage; because
of/for the sake of) show interesting correlates of this difference,
but I'll save that for some other post. Suffice to say that a
president, a chairperson, or "faurasitands" originally means: the
person that sits in front of a group of people to watch over the
meeting. People have got an intrinsic front; and, therefore, "faura"
should be used. 

Tata, 

Sigi





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