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[Ingemar Nordgren]

--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, "michalcigan" <michalcigan at ...> wrote:

> 2/And secon one, from wikipedia I have an information, that old
> english Geates/jeates/- in Beowulf located in Scandinavia - are Goths
> /it should be a reminiscence on their original homeland befor "the
> exodus" southward from south scandinavia/.
> Can I Belive this idea?


Hi Michalcigan,

It depends on what sense you give the name Goths. If you regard the
Vistula Goths as a single tribe/people with no connection to
neighbouring peoples/tribes the answer is no. If however you regard
all peoples/tribes claiming ancestry from Gaut as Gothic peoples the
answer must be yes. I have stated in my doctoral dissertation that the
name is teophoric regardless if you use the local names of
Gudones/Gotones, Goutai,Gutar, Gauter, Geatas, Gotnar or
Jutar/Ýtar/Ýtas/Eudozes since they all have the meaning 'the
outpoured, men'.Geatas could be either Gauter or Jutar. The Gothic
ethnicity is in my view primarily  religious and not nessecarily
linguistic even if the Gothic language later is identified with the
Continental Goths. It is still not known when Gothic/Eastgermanic
became an own branch but in any case that must have happened before
the Scandinavian dialects started to develope. Some claim a
relationship between Eastgermanic and Northgermanic, other mean
Northgermanic is part of Northwestgermanic and not related to
Eastgermanic. In any case religion presumably is older than the
different later languages. I know this is  a wasps nest on this list
and I do not intend to involve myself into a linguistic discussion
that can go on for ever and for which I lack competence. I stick to
religion as a safer card. I have elaborated on these things in my
book, The Well Spring of the Goths, that is available at Amazon and
other netshops, and it is quite nessecary to read that book to really
understand what I say and why. (The English is, I am sorry to say, of
neither  fluent  US or GB standard but rather mixed since I translated
it myself, but in any case understandable).

Best
Ingemar






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