AN INTRODUCTION, PHONOLOGICAL, MORPHOLOGICAL, SYNTACTIC, TO THE GOTHIC OF ULFILAS. BY T. LE MARCHANT DOUSE. LONDON: TAYLOR AND FRANCIS, RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET. 1886, PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND FRANCIS, BED LION COURT, FLEET STREET. PREFACE. THIS book was originally designed to accompany an edition of Ulfilas for which I was collecting materials some eight or nine years ago, but which various con- siderations led me to lay aside. As, however, it had long seemed to me equally strange and deplorable that not a single work adapted to aid a student in acquiring a knowledge of Gothic was to be found in the English book-market, I pro- ceeded to give most of the time at my disposal to the " building up of this Introduction," on a somewhat larger scale than was at first intended, in the hope of being able to promote the study of a dialect which, apart from its native force and beauty, has special claims on the attention of more than one important class of students. By the student of linguistic science, indeed, these claims are at once admitted ; for the Gothic is one of the pillars on which rests the comparative grammar of the older both Indo-European languages in general, and also, pre-eminently, of the Teutonic cluster of dialects in particular. a But good knowledge of Gothic is scarcely less valuable to the student of the English language, at rate, of the Ancient or any English Anglo-Saxon ; upon the phonology of which, and indeed the whole grammar, the Gothic sheds a flood of light that is not to be got from any other source. VI PREFACE. And, again, the dialect should be one of very great interest to the Biblical student ; for in it are enshrined extensive remains of a venerable version of the New Testament which is equally valuable and instructive where it agrees with and where it differs from other and later versions. Nevertheless, by the time my first copy was finished I had conceived a suspicion that the desire to master a language lying outside the small group usually studied in this country would be confined to so few persons that I should do almost as well in burning my copy as in printing it. Since then, however, three or four books upon Ulfilas or his language have been published in this and that as well as a country ; trusting these, slowly- growing interest in linguistic science, of which I see other signs, may have done something towards securing a welcome for a more advanced treatise, I at last venture, after subjecting it to repeated revision and much excision, to publish the present work. I will take leave to mention, by the way, that although I have not seen any of the books just referred to, yet one of them Prof. Skeat's edition of St. Mark, with (I think) a grammatical introduction has had some effect this volume for I had before upon ; myself, long the appearance of the distinguished Professor's book, prepared a text of the same gospel and a sufficient vocabulary, with the intention of adding them hereto by of I removed but at the way appendix. These, then, ; same time restored the supplementary sections (114- 116), which had been marked for suppression, and also, in the Syntax, quoted in full the numerous illustrations from St. Mark, which I had intended to indicate by simple reference. The general plan of this book may be seen in the ensuing table of contents. In carrying out this plan I PREFACE. have worked mainly from my own notes and lexical and other materials collected in the course of my philo- of the Gothic logical reading and my frequent study as there is a remains ; and even where, under Inflexion, certain accepted common stock of matter which one might perhaps be excused for appropriating without much inquiry, I have still done my best to subject the whole to a re-examination. In the Phonology an attempt is made to exemplify systematically in the Gothic the results of various researches by the foremost philologists of the continent, whose names will be mentioned as their views are referred to. The chapters on Derivation and Composition are chiefly confined to a fresh collection and arrangement of instances of facts and ; although points special import- ance are sufficiently discussed. The Syntax is newly the rules have been deduced from the planned ; directly and idioms of the Gothic remains and while usages ; some are probably new in substance, most of them are, I think, new in form. I suppose that every one who is likely to enter seriously upon the study of Gothic will already be more or less skilled in speechcraft. Hence I have generally assumed, on the part of readers of this book, a know- ledge of the fundamental principles and of the termi- of and I have not refrained nology grammar ; always from citing hypotheses and explanations which may perhaps be hereafter corrected, if not rejected, thinking it better that the present or recent state of opinion should be known to such readers than that matters of interest should be passed over with insufficient notice. I originally contemplated, and indeed began, a more systematic comparison between Gothic and English than now in the book but it soon became clear that appears ; to carry out such a comparison satisfactorily would Vlll PREFACE. require constant reference to the older stages of our language, and would sometimes lead me far astray from main I therefore abandoned it and all the my path. ; more willingly because I felt sure that such readers as could follow it profitably would be already competent, with the materials now before them, to do the work themselves and also of ; because, by way compensation, I could then allow myself a little more space for the discussion of certain leading features of all Teutonic such as the grammar, strong-verb system ( 22-25); the weak and accentuation preterite ( 81); ( 85); not to mention many smaller matters, such as the " derivation of "twelve "eleven" and ( 34 (2)), and " " the of learn Note 7 history ( 43, ). As there are limits to human vigilance, it can hardly be but that, in the dense mass of details contained in this book, some errors have escaped notice. All such must be laid to for my charge ; my respected printers, whom I am glad to take the opportunity of thanking, have answered with great pains and exactitude to my calls their many upon resources. A few trifling cor- rections are noted on xii for others already page ; any reach I that may me shall be duly grateful. London, May 1886. T. LE M. D. CONTENTS. PRELIMINARY CHAPTER. THE PLACE OF THE GOTHS AND THEIR LANGUAGE IN THE INDO-EUROPEAN SYSTEM. 1. Distribution of the I-E. the Teutonic peoples ; Area; 2. Location of the Goths ; their connexion with Scandi- navia 3. and of the Goths ; Movements disappearance ; 4. Ulfilas; 5. The common origin of the I-E. languages; 6. old of The Teutonic dialects ; the place Gothic among them 1-11 PART I. THE GOTHIC ALPHABET: TRANSLITERATION; PRONUNCIATION. old of the 8. 7. The Runic Alphabet Goths ; The Ulfilic its to the to the Alphabet ; relationship Runic and Greek 9. Gothic Transliteration Alphabets ; Speech-sounds ; ; 10. The Modernized Alphabet, with the phonetic values of the letters; 11. Exercise in Pronunciation . 12-22 PART II. PHONOLOGY. 12. General notions ; 13. Outline of Phonetics ; 14. classified their relation to Sounds Symbols ; proper ; 15. The deduced Primitive 16. Recent Modifications Alphabet ; of divisions of this 17. some Alphabet ; The Primitive Vowel-system; Vowel-gradation; 18. The European Vowel- " illustration from the Greek 19. The I-E. So- system" ; ; nants in and Asia 20. Guttural Europe ; The primitive series and and their ("Velars" "Palatals") developments ; 21. The Teutonic 22. The Gothic Vowel- Vowel-system ; 23. in system ; Vowel-gradation Gothic ; the Perfect Tense ; 24. Gothic "Ablaut" Verbs as exhibiting Vowel-grada- tion 25. Verbs 26. individual Vowel- ; Reduplicating ; The their 27. 28. sounds, origin and position ; The Liquids ; The Nasals 29. 30. The Sibilants ; The Spirants, w, j ; ; evolution of z from s (Verner's Law); 31. The Gothic Mutes, their relations to the Primitive Mutes (Grimm's Law, b X CONTENTS. aud Verner's Law) 32. The Gutturals (Velars Palatals) ; 33. The Dentals; 34. The Labials; and f=hw (with a dis- cussion of and "twelve"); 35. ainlif, "eleven," tivalif," " 36. Tabulation of Hiatus; Apocope; Auslautsgesetze ; in actual Gothic Sounds ; their relative frequency speech. 23-85 PART III. MORPHOLOGY. 37. General notions of Word-building; Factors of the Suffixes Derivation I-E. Word ; 38. Roots ; ; ; Composi- tion; Inflexion 86-93 (I) DERIVATION. : u 40. 39. Noun-stems those formed by a, o, i, ; by suffixes involving a consonant; 41. by suffixes involving two or more consonants; 42. Pronouns; Particles; 43. Verbs : Weak and Active ai- and Strong ; " (ja-, } o-verbs) ; " Correlative Passives 93-117 (II) COMPOSITION. 44. Compounds from components of coordinate gram- matical rank 45. ; Compounds formed by Prefixes, separable and inseparable 117-125 (III) INFLEXION. 46. " Parts of General Notions ; Speech." " " Substantives. 47. (a) Declension Case-endings ; a- 48. Gothic Vowel Declensions ; and d-stems; 49. i-stems ; 50. M-stems; 51. Consonant Declensions; w-stems; 52. Steins in -}>ar, -nd, &c.; 53. Borrowed substan- tives 125-138 (/3) Adjectives (including Participles and Numerals] . 54. The "Strong" Adjective; its pronominal declension; 55. The Vowel or Strong Declensions; a- and o-stems; 56. i- stems; 57. w-stems; 58. Weak Adjectives; ra-stems; 59. of 60. 61. Comparison Adjectives ; The Participles; The Numerals ; Cardinal, Ordinal, Indefinite .