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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===Morphology=== ====Nouns and adjectives==== {{Main|Gothic declension}} Gothic preserves many archaic Indo-European features that are not always present in modern Germanic languages, in particular the rich Indo-European [[declension]] system. Gothic had [[nominative]], [[accusative]], [[genitive]] and [[dative case]]s, as well as vestiges of a [[vocative case]] that was sometimes identical to the nominative and sometimes to the accusative. The three [[grammatical gender|genders]] of Indo-European were all present. Nouns and adjectives were inflected according to one of two [[grammatical number]]s: the singular and the plural. Nouns can be divided into numerous declensions according to the form of the stem: ''a'', ''ō'', ''i'', ''u'', ''an'', ''ōn'', ''ein'', ''r'', etc. Adjectives have two variants, ''indefinite'' and ''definite'' (sometimes ''indeterminate'' and ''determinate''), with definite adjectives normally used in combination with the definite [[determiner (linguistics)|determiner]]s (such as the [[definite article]] ''sa''/''þata''/''sō'') while indefinite adjectives are used in other circumstances.,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ratkus |first1=Artūras |title=Weak adjectives need not be definite |journal=Indogermanische Forschungen |date=1 August 2018 |volume=123 |issue=1 |pages=27–64 |doi=10.1515/if-2018-0002|s2cid=172125588 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ratkus |first1=Artūras |title=This is not the same: the ambiguity of a Gothic adjective |journal=Folia Linguistica Historica |date=25 October 2018 |volume=39 |issue=2 |pages=475–494 |doi=10.1515/flih-2018-0017|s2cid=150114192 }}</ref> Indefinite adjectives generally use a combination of ''a''-stem and ''ō''-stem endings, and definite adjectives use a combination of ''an''-stem and ''ōn''-stem endings. The concept of "strong" and "weak" declensions that is prevalent in the grammar of many other [[Germanic languages]] is less significant in Gothic because of its conservative nature: the so-called "weak" declensions (those ending in ''n'') are, in fact, no weaker in Gothic (in terms of having fewer endings) than the "strong" declensions (those ending in a vowel), and the "strong" declensions do not form a coherent class that can be clearly distinguished from the "weak" declensions. Although descriptive adjectives in Gothic (as well as superlatives ending in ''-ist'' and ''-ost'') and the [[past participle]] may take both definite and indefinite forms, some adjectival words are restricted to one variant. Some pronouns take only definite forms: for example, ''sama'' (English "same"), adjectives like ''unƕeila'' ("constantly", from the root ''ƕeila'', "time"; compare to the English "while"), comparative adjective and [[present participle]]s. Others, such as ''áins'' ("some"), take only the indefinite forms. The table below displays the declension of the Gothic adjective ''blind'' (English: "blind"), compared with the ''an''-stem noun ''guma'' "man, human" and the ''a''-stem noun ''dags'' "day": {| class="wikitable" |- ! rowspan="3" | Number ! rowspan="3" | Case ! colspan="5" | Definite/''an''-stem ! colspan="5" | Indefinite/''a''-stem |- ! rowspan="2" | Noun ! colspan="4" | Adjective ! rowspan="2" | Noun ! colspan="4" | Adjective |- ! style="height:58px;"| root ! {{abbr|masc.|masculine}} ! {{abbr|neut.|neuter}} ! {{abbr|fem.|feminine}} ! root ! {{abbr|masc.|masculine}} ! {{abbr|neut.|neuter}} ! {{abbr|fem.|feminine}} |- ! rowspan="4" | Singular | ''{{abbr|nom.|nominative}}'' || guma | rowspan="8" style="text-align:right; vertical-align:middle;" | blind- | -a || colspan="2" | -o || dags | rowspan="8" style="text-align:right; vertical-align:middle;" | blind- | -s || rowspan="2" | — / -ata || rowspan="2" | -a |- | ''{{abbr|acc.|accusative}}'' || guman || -an || -o || rowspan="2" | -on | dag || -ana |- | ''{{abbr|dat.|dative}}'' || gumin || colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" | -in|| daga | colspan="2" style="text-align:center;"| -amma || -ái |- | ''{{abbr|gen.|genitive}}'' || gumins || colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" | -ins | rowspan="3" | -ons || dagis | colspan="2" style="text-align:center;"| -is || áizos |- ! rowspan="4" | Plural | ''{{abbr|nom.|nominative}}'' || rowspan="2" | gumans | rowspan="2" | -ans || rowspan="2" | -ona || dagos | -ái || rowspan="2" | -a || rowspan="2" | -os |- | ''{{abbr|acc.|accusative}}'' | dagans || -ans |- | ''{{abbr|dat.|dative}}'' || gumam || colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" | -am | -om || dagam | colspan="3" style="text-align:center;" | -áim |- | ''{{abbr|gen.|genitive}}'' || gumane || colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" | -ane | -ono || dage || colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" | -áize | -áizo |} This table is, of course, not exhaustive. (There are secondary inflexions of various sorts not described here.) An exhaustive table of only the ''types'' of endings that Gothic took is presented below. * '''vowel declensions''': ** roots ending in ''-a'', ''-ja'', ''-wa'' (masculine and neuter): equivalent to the Greek and Latin second declension in ''‑us'' / ''‑ī'' and ‑ος / ‑ου; ** roots ending in ''-ō'', ''-jō'' and ''-wō'' (feminine): equivalent to the Greek and Latin first declension in ''‑a'' / ''‑ae'' and ‑α / ‑ας (‑η / ‑ης); ** roots ending in ''-i'' (masculine and feminine): equivalent to the Greek and Latin third declension in ''‑is'' / ''‑is'' ({{abbr|abl.|ablative}} {{abbr|sg.|singular}} ''‑ī'', {{abbr|gen.|genitive}} {{abbr|pl.|plural}} ''-ium'') and ‑ις / ‑εως; ** roots ending in ''-u'' (all three genders): equivalent to the Latin fourth declension in ''‑us'' / ''‑ūs'' and the Greek third declension in ‑υς / ‑εως; * '''''n''-stem declensions''', equivalent to the Greek and Latin third declension in ''‑ō'' / ''‑inis/ōnis'' and ‑ων / ‑ονος or ‑ην / ‑ενος: ** roots ending in ''-an'', ''-jan'', ''-wan'' (masculine); ** roots ending in ''-ōn'' and ''-ein'' (feminine); ** roots ending in ''-n'' (neuter): equivalent to the Greek and Latin third declension in ''‑men'' / ''‑minis'' and ‑μα / ‑ματος; * '''minor declensions''': roots ending in ''-r'', ''-nd'' and vestigial endings in other consonants, equivalent to other third declensions in Greek and Latin. Gothic adjectives follow noun declensions closely; they take same types of inflection. ====Pronouns==== {{Main|Gothic declension#Pronouns|l1=Gothic declension: Pronouns}} Gothic inherited the full set of Indo-European pronouns: [[personal pronoun]]s (including [[reflexive pronoun]]s for each of the three [[grammatical person]]s), [[possessive pronoun]]s, both simple and compound [[demonstrative pronoun|demonstratives]], [[relative pronoun]]s, [[interrogative pronoun|interrogatives]] and [[indefinite pronoun]]s. Each follows a particular pattern of inflection (partially mirroring the noun declension), much like other Indo-European languages. One particularly noteworthy characteristic is the preservation of the [[dual grammatical number|dual number]], referring to two people or things; the plural was used only for quantities greater than two. Thus, "the two of us" and "we" for numbers greater than two were expressed as ''wit'' and ''weis'' respectively. While proto-Indo-European used the dual for all grammatical categories that took a number (as did Classical Greek and [[Sanskrit]]), most Old Germanic languages are unusual in that they preserved it only for pronouns. Gothic preserves an older system with dual marking on both pronouns and verbs (but not nouns or adjectives). The simple demonstrative pronoun ''sa'' (neuter: ''þata'', feminine: ''so'', from the Indo-European root ''*so'', ''*seh<sub>2</sub>'', ''*tod''; cognate to the Greek article ὁ, ἡ, τό and the Latin ''is'''tud''''') can be used as an article, allowing constructions of the type ''definite article + weak adjective + noun''. The interrogative pronouns begin with ''ƕ-'', which derives from the proto-Indo-European consonant ''*kʷ'' that was present at the beginning of all interrogatives in proto-Indo-European, cognate with the ''wh-'' at the beginning of many English interrogative, which, as in Gothic, are pronounced with {{IPA|[ʍ]}} in some dialects. The same etymology is present in the interrogatives of many other Indo-European languages: ''w-'' {{IPA|[v]}} in [[German language|German]], ''hv-'' in [[Danish language|Danish]], the Latin ''qu-'' (which persists in modern [[Romance languages]]), the Greek τ- or π-, the [[Slavic languages|Slavic]] and [[Indo-Aryan languages|Indic]] ''k-'' as well as many others. ====Verbs==== {{Main|Gothic verbs}} The bulk of Gothic verbs follow the type of Indo-European conjugation called '[[thematic stem|thematic]]' because they insert a vowel derived from the reconstructed proto-Indo-European phonemes ''*e'' or ''*o'' between roots and inflexional suffixes. The pattern is also present in Greek and Latin: *Latin – ''leg-i-mus'' ("we read"): root ''leg-'' + thematic vowel ''-i-'' (from ''*o'') + suffix ''-mus''. *Greek – λύ-ο-μεν ("we untie"): root λυ- + thematic vowel -ο- + suffix -μεν. *Gothic – ''nim-a-m'' ("we take"): root ''nim-'' + thematic vowel ''-a-'' (from ''*o'') + suffix ''-m''. The other conjugation, called '[[athematic]]', in which suffixes are added directly to roots, exists only in unproductive vestigial forms in Gothic, just like in Greek and Latin. The most important such instance is [[Indo-European copula|the verb "to be"]], which is athematic in Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, and many other Indo-European languages. Gothic verbs are, like nouns and adjectives, divided into strong verbs and weak verbs. Weak verbs are characterised by [[preterite]]s formed by appending the suffixes ''-da'' or ''-ta'', parallel to past participles formed with ''-þ'' / ''-t''. Strong verbs form preterites by [[Indo-European ablaut|ablaut]] (the alternating of vowels in their root forms) or by [[reduplication]] (prefixing the root with the first consonant in the root plus ''aí'') but without adding a suffix in either case. This parallels the Greek and Sanskrit [[perfect (grammar)|perfects]]. The dichotomy is still present in modern Germanic languages: * weak verbs ("to have"): ** Gothic: ''haban'', preterite: ''habái'''da''''', past participle: ''habái'''þ'''s''; ** English: ''(to) have'', preterite: ''ha'''d''''', past participle: ''ha'''d'''''; ** German: ''haben'', preterite: ''hat'''te''''', past participle: ''gehab'''t'''''; ** Icelandic: ''hafa'', preterite: ''haf'''ði''''', past participle: ''haf'''t'''''; ** Dutch: ''hebben'', preterite: ''ha'''d''''', past participle: ''geha'''d'''''; ** Swedish: ''ha(va)'', preterite: ''ha'''d'''e'', supine: ''haf'''t'''''; * strong verbs ("to give"): ** Gothic: infinitive: ''g'''i'''ban'', preterite: ''g'''a'''f''; ** English: infinitive: ''(to) g'''i'''ve'', preterite: ''g'''a'''ve''; ** German: infinitive: ''g'''e'''ben'', preterite: ''g'''a'''b''; ** Icelandic: infinitive: ''g'''e'''fa'', preterite: ''g'''a'''f''; ** Dutch: infinitive: ''g'''e'''ven'', preterite: ''g'''a'''f''; ** Swedish: infinitive: ''g'''i'''va'' (''ge''), preterite: ''g'''a'''v''. Verbal conjugation in Gothic have two [[grammatical voice]]s: the active and the medial; three numbers: singular, dual (except in the third person) and plural; two tenses: present and preterite (derived from a former perfect); three [[grammatical mood]]s: [[indicative mood|indicative]], [[subjunctive mood|subjunctive]] (from an old [[optative mood|optative]] form) and [[imperative mood|imperative]] as well as three kinds of nominal forms: a present [[infinitive]], a present [[participle]], and a past [[passive voice|passive]]. Not all tenses and persons are represented in all moods and voices, as some conjugations use [[auxiliary verb|auxiliary forms]]. Finally, there are forms called 'preterite-present': the old Indo-European perfect was reinterpreted as present tense. The Gothic word ''wáit'', from the proto-Indo-European ''*woid-h<sub>2</sub>e'' ("to see" in the perfect), corresponds exactly to its Sanskrit cognate ''véda'' and in Greek to ϝοἶδα. Both etymologically should mean "I have seen" (in the perfect sense) but mean "I know" (in the preterite-present meaning). Latin follows the same rule with ''nōuī'' ("I have learned" and "I know"). The preterite-present verbs include ''áigan'' ("to possess") and ''kunnan'' ("to know") among others. 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