Gothic language

====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.
Description	What you type	What you get
Italic	''Italic text''	Italic text
Bold	'''Bold text'''	Bold text
Bold & italic	'''''Bold & italic text'''''	*Bold & italic text*
Description	What you type	What you get
Reference	Page text.<ref>[https://www.example.org/ Link text], additional text.</ref>	Page text.^[1]
Named reference	Page text.<ref name="test">[https://www.example.org/ Link text]</ref>	Page text.^[2]
Additional use of the same reference	Page text.<ref name="test" />	Page text.^[2]
Display references	<references />	↑ Link text, additional text. ↑ Link text