News website in Gothic, it's here

[edmundfairfax@yahoo.ca [gothic-l]]

Dear Gerry, 

 I think you are certainly on the right track.
 

 The word 'international' is apparently a modern coinage: the earliest attestation of the word in English comes from the late eighteenth century, according to the OED, and my French etymological dictionary gives the nineteenth century for the same word in French. Classical Latin, and as far as I can tell, Ancient Greek had no such word.
 

 The concept was captured in Classical Latin by using the genitive plural of the word 'gens' ('nation, race, people, tribe'); thus 'international law' would be 'ius gentium,' literally 'law of nations.'
 

 It seems to me that this would be a better model to follow for Gothic, rather than the modern languages. Thus 'international law' would accordingly be rendered in Gothic as 'witoth thiudo,' again 'law of nations/peoples.'
 

 Judging from its use in the Bible translation, Gothic 'thiuda' appears to correspond well to Latin 'gens' in meaning, at least in this particular aspect: a group of people that share a common cultural, political, linguistic, etc. background (cf. OE 'theod,' ON 'thjoth,' OHG 'thiota').
 

 The more that neologisms are resorted to in attempting to write in Gothic, the less Gothic it becomes, and you end up with a mishmash of real Gothic and a Tolkienesque invented language. It is best to work with the limited word-hoard that is extant and simply rephrase to avoid fantastical creations.
 

 Edmund
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