[gothic-l] Re: Gothic, Yiddish and High German

[Francisc Czobor]

Hi, Tom!

There is evidence, both historical and linguistic, that the Crimean 
Goths are indeed descendants of Eastern (or "Greutungian") Goths.
The historical evidence is better known by other members of this List.
I will speak a little about the linguistic evidence.
All that we know about the Crimean Gothic language is from the word 
list collected by Busbecq in the 16th century.

In that list, there are words that are clearly East Germanic, and not 
German, for instance:
salt "salt": Goth. salt, but Germ. Salz
mine "moon": Goth. mena, but Germ. Mond
brunna "well, fountain": Goth. brunna, but Germ. Brunnen
schlipen "sleep": Goth. slepan, but Germ. schlafen
ada "egg": Goth. *addja-, but Germ. Ei
baar "child": Goth. barn, but Germ. Kind
menus "flesh, meat": Goth. mimz, but Germ. Fleisch
mycha "sword": Goth. mekeis, but Old Sax. maki
ies "he": Goth. is, but. Germ. er
tua "two": Goth. twa (neuter), but Germ. zwei
tria "three": Goth. thrija (neuter), but Germ. drei
fyder "four": Goth. fidwor, but Germ. vier

On the other hand, there are words that look rather German than 
Gothic:
reghen "rain": Germ. Regen, but Goth. rign
bruder "brother": Germ. Bruder, but Goth. brothar
schuuester "sister": Germ. Schwester, but Goth. swistar
alt "old": Germ. alt, but Goth. altheis
thurn "door": Germ. Tür, but Goth. daur
tag "day": Germ. Tag, but Goth. dags
kommen "come": Germ. kommen, but Goth. qiman [pronounced: kwiman]
singhen "sing": Germ. singen, but Goth. siggwan [pronounced: singwan]
lachen "laugh": Germ. lachen, but Goth. hlahjan
geen "go": Germ. gehen, but Goth. gaggan
ich "I": Germ. ich, but Goth. ik

In conclusion, Crimean Gothic has a clearly East Germanic origin, 
being with high probability the descendant of an old Gothic dialect.

For the words looking rather German than Gothic, there are three 
explanations:

1. The Crimean Gothic of the Busbecq's list, being from the 16th 
century, can be considered a "modern" Germanic language, that 
underwent phonetic changes parallel to those observed in the other 
modern Germanic languages, compared with the 4th century's Wulfilan 
Gothic. Thus rign, brothar, siggwan could become reghen, bruder, 
singhen, without any German influence. Also the form "ich" for "I", 
similar to German, could be explained through internal changes in 
Crimean Gothic: the shift k>ch is observed also in a pure Gothic 
word: mekeis>mycha.
But there are words that are indeed suspiciously German-looking, like 
alt, tag, kommen, lachen, geen. For these cases, the two other 
explanations are applicable:

2. Busbecq, being a speaker of Dutch (Flemish) and German, was 
tempted to give a more German form to words that sounded familiar to 
him: it is possible that where his Crimean informers said something 
like [dag] or [kwemen], he wrote down "tag", "kommen".

3. It is also possible that the 16th century's Crimean Goths were 
mixed with later German immigrants, and the language recorded by 
Busbecq was a sort of "mixed language", Gothic and German. This would 
explain also why German merchants shipwrecked in Crimea in the 14th-
15th centuries could make themselves understood in German with local 
people.

Francisc


--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, macmaster at r... wrote:
> Is there any possibility - from a linguistic perspective - that the
> Crimean Goths might not be the descendants of Greutungian Goths but 
might,
> instead, be later Germanic immigrants to the region who adopted the 
name
> of the people who had preceded them in the same region?
> 
> Tom MacMaster
> 





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