[gothic-l] Re: is Gothic the language of one or a few men?

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

Dear Roel, 

 This is a rather antiquated view now. One sometimes comes across similar claims for German, such that Luther is seen as the "father" of Early Modern German. The idea is not so much that Gothic was spoken only by a few, but rather that the Bible translation "standardized" Gothic, that is, created a literary standard for Goths of varying dialects. Such a view is entirely speculative, however, since we do not know how much dialectal variation there was amongst Goths, or how great it was, or whether the language of the Bible translation was felt by Goths to be a novel creation. Always ask for proof.
 

 Audamunds
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