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PreviewAdvancedSpecial charactersHelpHeadingLevel 2Level 3Level 4Level 5FormatInsertLatinLatin extendedIPASymbolsGreekGreek extendedCyrillicArabicArabic extendedHebrewBanglaTamilTeluguSinhalaDevanagariGujaratiThaiLaoKhmerCanadian AboriginalRunesÁáÀàÂâÄäÃãǍǎĀāĂ㥹ÅåĆćĈĉÇçČčĊċĐđĎďÉéÈèÊêËëĚěĒēĔĕĖėĘęĜĝĢģĞğĠġĤĥĦħÍíÌìÎîÏïĨĩǏǐĪīĬĭİıĮįĴĵĶķĹĺĻļĽľŁłŃńÑñŅņŇňÓóÒòÔôÖöÕõǑǒŌōŎŏǪǫŐőŔŕŖŗŘřŚśŜŝŞşŠšȘșȚțŤťÚúÙùÛûÜüŨũŮůǓǔŪūǖǘǚǜŬŭŲųŰűŴŵÝýŶŷŸÿȲȳŹźŽžŻżÆæǢǣØøŒœßÐðÞþƏəFormattingLinksHeadingsListsFilesDiscussionReferencesDescriptionWhat you typeWhat you getItalic''Italic text''Italic textBold'''Bold text'''Bold textBold & italic'''''Bold & italic text'''''Bold & italic textDescriptionWhat you typeWhat you getReferencePage text.<ref>[https://www.example.org/ Link text], additional text.</ref>Page text.[1]Named referencePage text.<ref name="test">[https://www.example.org/ Link text]</ref>Page text.[2]Additional use of the same referencePage text.<ref name="test" />Page text.[2]Display references<references />↑ Link text, additional text.↑ Link text==History and evidence== [[File:Ambrosianus.jpg|thumb|240px|A leaf of the ''Codex Ambrosianus B'']] Only a few documents in Gothic have survived – not enough for a complete reconstruction of the language. Most Gothic-language sources are translations or glosses of other languages (namely, [[Koine Greek|Greek]]), so foreign linguistic elements most certainly influenced the texts. These are the primary sources: * The largest body of surviving documentation consists of various [[codices]], mostly from the sixth century, copying the [[Bible translation]] that was commissioned by the [[Arianism|Arian]] bishop [[Ulfilas]] (Wulfila, 311–382), leader of a community of [[Visigoths|Visigothic]] [[Christianity|Christian]]s in the [[Roman Empire|Roman]] province of [[Moesia]] (modern-day [[Serbia]], [[Bulgaria]]/[[Romania]]). He commissioned a translation into the Gothic language of the [[Greek Vulgate|Greek Bible]], of which translation roughly three-quarters of the [[New Testament]] and some fragments of the [[Old Testament]] have survived. The extant translated texts, produced by several scholars, are collected in the following codices and in one inscription: :*''[[Codex Argenteus]]'' ([[Uppsala]]), including the Speyer fragment: 188 leaves ::The best-preserved Gothic manuscript, dating from the sixth century, it was preserved and transmitted by northern [[Ostrogoths]] in modern-day Italy. It contains a large portion of the four [[gospel]]s. Since it is a translation from Greek, the language of the ''Codex Argenteus'' is replete with borrowed Greek words and Greek usages. The syntax in particular is often copied directly from the Greek. :*[[Codices Ambrosiani|''Codex Ambrosianus'']] ([[Milan]]) and the ''Codex Taurinensis'' ([[Turin]]): Five parts, totaling 193 leaves ::It contains scattered passages from the New Testament (including parts of the gospels and the [[Epistle]]s), from the [[Old Testament]] ([[Book of Nehemiah|Nehemiah]]), and some commentaries known as ''[[Skeireins]]''. The text likely had been somewhat modified by copyists. :*''[[Codex Gissensis]]'' ([[Gießen]]): One leaf with fragments of [[Gospel of Luke|Luke]] 23–24 (apparently a Gothic-Latin [[diglot]]) was found in an excavation in [[Faiyum|Arsinoë]] in Egypt in 1907 and was destroyed by water damage in 1945, after copies had already been made by researchers. :*''[[Codex Carolinus]]'' ([[Wolfenbüttel]]): Four leaves, fragments of [[Epistle to the Romans|Romans]] 11–15 (a Gothic-Latin [[diglot]]). :* ''Codex Vaticanus Latinus'' 5750 ([[Vatican City]]): Three leaves, pages 57–58, 59–60, and 61–62 of the ''Skeireins''. This is a fragment of [[Codices Ambrosiani|''Codex Ambrosianus E'']]. :*''Gothica Bononiensia'' (also known as the ''Codex Bononiensis''), a [[palimpsest]] fragment, discovered in 2009, of two folios with what appears to be a sermon, containing besides non-biblical text a number of direct Bible quotes and allusions, both from previously attested parts of the Gothic Bible (the text is clearly taken from Ulfilas' translation) and from previously unattested ones (e.g., [[Psalms]], [[Book of Genesis|Genesis]]).<ref>Carla Falluomini, 'Zum gotischen Fragment aus Bologna II: Berichtigungen und neue Lesungen', ''Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und Literatur'' 146.3 (2017) pp. 284–294.</ref> :* ''Fragmenta Pannonica'' (also known as the ''Hács-Béndekpuszta fragments'' or ''Tabella Hungarica''), which consist of fragments of a 1 mm thick lead plate with remnants of verses from the Gospels. :*The Mangup Graffiti: five inscriptions written in the Gothic Alphabet discovered in 2015 from the basilica church of [[Mangup]], [[Crimea]]. The graffiti all date from the mid-9th century, making this the latest attestation of the Gothic Alphabet and the only one from outside Italy or [[Pannonia]]. The five texts include a quotation from the otherwise unattested Psalm 76 and some prayers; the language is not noticeably different from Wulfila's and only contains words known from other parts of the Gothic Bible.<ref>*{{cite journal|first1=Andrey |last1=Vinogradov |first2=Maksim |last2=Korobov |title=Gothic graffiti from the Mangup basilica |journal=NOWELE. North-Western European Language Evolution |volume=71 |issue=2 |year=2018 |pages=223–235 |url=https://www.academia.edu/38082606 |doi=10.1075/nowele.00013.vin}}</ref> * A scattering of old documents: two deeds (the ''[[Naples]]'' and ''[[Arezzo]]'' deeds, on papyri), alphabets (in the ''Gothica Vindobonensia'' and the ''Gothica Parisina''), a calendar (in the ''Codex Ambrosianus A''), glosses found in a number of manuscripts and a few [[Gothic runic inscriptions|runic inscriptions]] (between three and 13) that are known or suspected to be Gothic: some scholars believe that these inscriptions are not at all Gothic.<ref>Braune/Ebbinghaus, ''Gotische Grammatik'', Tübingen 1981</ref> [[Wolfgang Krause|Krause]] thought that several names in an Indian inscription were possibly Gothic.<ref>{{cite book|last1= Krause|first1= Wolfgang|title= Handbuch des Gotischen|publisher= Niemeyer}}</ref> Reports of the discovery of other parts of Ulfilas' Bible have not been substantiated. Heinrich May in 1968 claimed to have found in England twelve leaves of a palimpsest containing parts of the [[Gospel of Matthew]]. Only fragments of the Gothic translation of the Bible have been preserved. The translation was apparently done in the Balkans region by people in close contact with Greek Christian culture. The Gothic Bible apparently was used by the [[Visigoths]] in southern France until the [[Battle of Vouillé|loss of Visigothic France]] at the start of the 6th century,<ref>Carla Falluomini, "Traces of Wulfila's Bible Translation in Visigothic Gaul", ''Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik'' 80 (2020) pp. 5–24.</ref> in Visigothic [[Iberian peninsula|Iberia]] until about 700, and perhaps for a time in Italy, the Balkans, and Ukraine until at least the mid-9th century. During the extermination of [[Arianism]], Trinitarian Christians probably overwrote many texts in Gothic as palimpsests, or alternatively collected and burned Gothic documents. Apart from biblical texts, the only substantial Gothic document that still exists – and the only lengthy text known to have been composed originally in the Gothic language – is the ''Skeireins'', a few pages of commentary on the [[Gospel of John]].{{citation needed|date=June 2020}} Very few medieval secondary sources make reference to the Gothic language after about 800. In ''De incrementis ecclesiae Christianae'' (840–842), [[Walafrid Strabo]], a Frankish monk who lived in [[Swabia]], writes of a group of monks who reported that even then certain peoples in [[Scythia]] ([[Dobruja]]), especially around [[Constanța|Tomis]], spoke a ''sermo Theotiscus'' ('Germanic language'), the language of the Gothic translation of the Bible, and that they used such a liturgy.<ref> Alice L. Harting-Correa, "Walahfrid Strabo's libellus de exordiis et incrementis quarundam in observationibus ecclesiasticis rerum. A translation and liturgical commentary", Leiden-New York-Köln: Brill, 1996 ({{ISBN|90 04 09669 8}}), pp. 72–73. Discussion between W. Haubrichs and S. Barnish in D. H. Green (2007), "Linguistic and Literary Traces of the Ostrogoths", ''The Ostrogoths from the Migration Period to the Sixth Century: An Ethnographic Perspective'', Sam J. Barnish and Federico Marazzi, eds., part of ''Studies in Historical Archaeoethnology'', Volume 7, Giorgio Ausenda, series ed. (Oxford: Boydell Press, {{ISBN|978-1-84383-074-0}}.), p. 409 and n1. </ref> Many writers of the medieval texts that mention the [[Goths]] used the word ''Goths'' to mean any Germanic people in eastern Europe (such as the [[Varangians]]), many of whom certainly did not use the Gothic language as known from the Gothic Bible. Some writers even referred to [[Slavic languages|Slavic]]-speaking people as "Goths". However, it is clear from Ulfilas' translation that – despite some puzzles – the Gothic language belongs with the Germanic language-group, not with Slavic. Generally, the term "Gothic language" refers to the language of [[Ulfilas]], but the attestations themselves date largely from the 6th century, long after Ulfilas had died.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page