Gothic pronunciation

[anheropl0x]

Hello, gotenfreund.
 As Wright has in his book, grammar of the Gothic Language, medial b and d are pronounced as v and th between vowels and before consonants. J counts as a consonant. This does not apply to prefixes. So to give examples:
Giban "givan"
Rodjan "rothjan"
Anabiudan "ana-bewthan"
Fraitan "fra-itan" The I in this word is written with the two dots above it, showing that it is the start of a new syllable.

--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, "gotenfreund" <ekinzel at ...> wrote:
>
> I have a few questions about the proper pronunication of Gothic:
> 
> 1. I know that "b" and "d" between vowels is pronounced as "v" and "th" (voiced), e.g.
> 
> giban, like "givan"
> badi, like "bathi"
> 
> what if one of these letters is followed by "j"? - my understanding is that this glide is a semi-vowel.
> 
> So, is it rodjan or "rothjan"?
> arbeidjan or "arbeithjan"?
> gadaubjan or "gadauvjan"?
> 
> 2. related to this, if a word has a prefix, how does this affect pronunication, is the prefix pronounced separately, and the root word as normal, or does the prefix alter the pronunciation of the root word, e.g.
> 
> is gadaban like "ga-davan" or "gathavan"?
> anabiudan like "ana-byuthan" or "anavyuthan"?
> fraitan like "fra-itan" or is the "ai" pronounced as the diphthong?
> 
> thanks in advance, I can't find this is any of my books
> 
> Eric
>


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