Use of Gothic language in Spain
ualarauans
ualarauans at YAHOO.COM
Sun Jul 29 02:54:44 UTC 2007
--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, "llama_nom" <600cell at ...> wrote:
>
>
> 1. Leo Wiener: Commentary to the Germanic Laws and Medieval
Documents:
> "In Spain the Gothic language existed as late as the year 1091,
for it
> was in that year prohibited by a decree of the Synod of
Leon." "'Et
> interfuit etiam Renerius legatus, et Romanae ecclesiae Cardinalis,
> ibidemque celebrato concilio cum Bernardo Toletano primate, multa
de
> officijs ecclesiae statuerunt, et etiam de caetero omnes scriptores
> omissa litera Toletana, quam Gulfilas Gothorum Episcopus adinuenit,
> Gallicis literis vterentur,' Roderici Toletani (Rodrigo Ximenes)
> Chronicon, lib, VI, cap. XXX. See Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, 2nd
> ed., vol. V, p. 201. The assertion made somewhere that the
reference
> is to a calligraphy and not to the Gothic language is without any
> foundation, for the Gothic alphabet was never used for anything but
> Gothic." Admittedly Wiener expresses some eccentric views
elsewhere
> in this book and disputes the generally accepted chronology of the
> surviving Gothic manuscripts, but I'd be curious to know what
people
> make of this quote. Of course, even if this does indicate the
> survival of the Gothic written language, it doesn't necessarily
mean
> that it was still spoken.
It's very difficult, though tempting, to think that Gothic was
spoken up to the 11th century. My first impression of the quote is
that it says about a single letter (litera Toletana vs. Gallicis
literis) which had been borrowed from the Gothic (or maybe some
other forgotten alphabet) into the mode of writing of Iberian
scribes. It could be the letter for þ, for example. Like Old English
scribes who retained several runic letters (þ and w, if I remember
right) in the Latin-based alphabet of their manuscripts.
> 2. Tabula gentes, 550. I'd be interested to know more about this
> document and the context of the term Valagothi. Is it used
anywhere
> else in texts of this time and place? Is the prefix Vala- used
> elsewhere in a similar context? Is linguistic 'Romanisation' the
only
> possible interpretation? The Valagothi also are named in the
Historia
> Brittonum, in a passage tracing the supposed descent of
contemporary
> peoples from the Hebrew patriarchs of the Bible, I:17: "Armenon
autem
> habuit quinque filios: Gothus, Valagothus, Gebidus, Burgundus,
> Longobardus. [...]. ab Armenone autem quinque: Gothi, Valagothi,
> Gebidi, Burgundi, Longobardi." This text may go back to the 11th
c.,
> although it has traditionally been attributed to Nennius, d. 809.
There was a name Valgautr which Cleasby-Vigfusson lead back to val-
"Roman", not to val "slain". I don't know if it's relevant here.
[...]
> 8. Placenames. A complex issue, obviously. It seems that there
are
> placenames in Iberia and France attributed to the Goths, but we
> haven't come to any agreement about what their distribution might
show
> about how long the language survived. We might have to consider
that
> naming traditions could have outlasted the Gothic language, and
that
> placenames could have been formed by analogy with other placenames
> using Gothic elements, even by Romance speakers. Compare the use
of
> -ville as a suffix in US placenames.
The city of Burgos is it a Gothic name (baurgs)?
Ualarauans
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