Toledo

[Michael Erwin]

We might compare, as best we can, reconstructed linguistic frontiers  
from c. 300 with those from c. 800. The West Germanic languages did  
expand, Anglo-Frisian largely replacing Latin and Welsh in the  
British Lowlands, and Dutch-German expanding into the Low Countries,  
Rhineland, Switzerland, and the upper Danube to the Alps. The East  
Germanic languages seem to disappear outside the Crimea and possibly  
other enclaves as the Slavic languages spread... Arabic also spreads.

Gothic never had the religious importance of Latin or Arabic. If it  
was not the majority language in Gutþiuda, it was the most important  
(and the various histories nowhere suggest local language/trade  
language/prestige language divisions), was adopted for that reason,  
and was supplemented by Greek and Latin for the same reason as early  
as Wulfila's own exile.

The size and demographics of the exile groups remain largely unknown.  
Refugee populations tend to have slightly higher proportions of women  
and children than most populations, and the same may have applied to  
the refugees of 376. I think there were multiple mass migrations into  
the Balkans, starting with 376, and smaller migrations, starting in  
348, which could have changed the linguistic landscape in the Balkans  
just as other migrations changed the linguistic landscape in England.  
(Even if the total migration only amounts to 10-30% of the regional  
population). However, Slavic-speakers repeated the process in the  
same parts of the Balkans. I think there were much smaller, and more  
characteristically military, campaigns into Italy, Gaul, and Spain.

The name Totila, as has been noted elsewhere, is not old Gothic. It  
involves an additional sound-shift. This suggests living, primarily  
spoken, language, as well as contact with West-Germanic dialects.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/gothic-l/attachments/20070703/0244556b/attachment.htm>