Emigration av (some) Goths

[akoddsson]

Hi Wilhelm and Tore.

> Your answer, that the Goths came from Gotland, is remarkable, to say 
the least. Most scientists acknowledge that they don't know from where 
the Goths came. What we know is that that they surface in history a 
couple of centuries AD in the area of the Donahue or north of the 
Black Sea. This is what we think we know. That is what we have as a 
working hypothesis.

Two things seem obvious to me in connection with the Goth's homelend. 
The first is that there is a land, Gotland, that is called the land of 
the Goths. As far back as sources go, the land appears to have born 
this name. As parallels we have Sweden (the land of the Swedes), 
Ireland (the land of the Irish), and likely thousands of other such 
names from throughout the world and in numerous languages. This makes 
me wonder why Goths should be such an exception, emigration aside. The 
second is that as one specializing mostly in Germanic linguistics, and 
as one who has studied both Gothic and Gotlandic, it seems painfully 
obvious that Gotlandic, while absorbed into North Germanic, deviates 
from it, especially phonologically but also in other matters, in ways 
which agree with Gothic. As a non-specialist in Gothic history, and as 
a layman in Gothodemia, I still see no reason why the Goths should not 
have a homeland in Gotland, where Goths still live, emigration aside, 
and even if their original territory was wider, as it likely was. 

Sincerely, 
Konrad







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