Goths, Gauts, Geats, Gutones Etc.

[Ingemar Nordgren]

Hi Tim!

At least according to prof. Thorsten Andersson in an article 1998 they
are indeed linguistically related and they originate within the Baltic
area - around the Baltic.  I have treated that one in my dissertation.

Many Scandinavian linguists claim as well that Gothic is closely
related to North Germanic but some, e.g. Hans Frede Nielsen, denies it
and claims besides that North Germanic is in fact Northwest Germanic.
I do myself see a lot of significant similarities with Scandinavian
languages and specially so with the dialects in Gautland and on
Gotland(Gutland originally).One important item is e.g. the lack of
definite article like in  Scandinavian. Since we do not know the
ProtoNordic language and the first confirmed soundshift is recorded
only about 150 by Ptolemaios there is as I see it no way to deny an
earlier closer likeness with Gothic nor to confirm it. We have on the
list however some very skilled linguists that maybe  can give you a
simple explanation, even if I doubt that they indeed can be simple
enough for a non linguist to genuinely understand - at least I myself
find myself in a desert of ignorance when they start discussing
grammatic details in Gothic.

Best greetings
Ingemar

Best
Ingemar

--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, "Tim Caldwell" <vikingtimbo650 at ...>
wrote:
>
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> What exactly is the relationship between all the "Goth-sounding" 
> ethonyms among the germanic tribes? Is there a specific reason to 
> believe they're unrelated, or one to believe that they defintely ARE 
> related - or nothing either way..?
> 
> Cheers
> Tim
>


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