Gothic language Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ====Clitics==== Gothic has two [[clitic]] particles placed in the second position in a sentence, in accordance with [[Wackernagel's Law]]. One such clitic particle is -''u'', indicating a yes–no question or an indirect question, like Latin -''ne'': :{| |''ni-'''u'''''||''taíhun''||''þái''||''gahráinidái''||''waúrþun?''||(Luke 17:17) |- |not-'''{{abbr|{{sc|q}}|question}}'''||ten||that-{{abbr|{{sc|masc}}|masculine}}-{{abbr|{{sc|pl}}|plural}}||cleanse-{{abbr|{{sc|pp}}|past participle}}-{{abbr|{{sc|masc}}|masculine}}-{{abbr|{{sc|pl}}|plural}}||become-{{abbr|{{sc|3pl}}|third person plural}}-{{abbr|{{sc|pst}}|past}} |- |colspan=6|"Were there not ten that were cleansed?" |} :{| |''ei''||''saíƕam''||''qimái-'''u'''''||''Helias''||''nasjan''||''ina''||(Matthew 27:49) |- |that||see-{{abbr|{{sc|1pl}}|first person plural}}||come-{{abbr|{{sc|3sg}}|third person singular}}-{{abbr|{{sc|opt}}|optative}}-'''{{abbr|{{sc|q}}|question}}'''||Elias||save-{{abbr|{{sc|inf}}|infinitive}}||he-{{abbr|{{sc|acc}}|accusative}} |- |colspan=7|"that we see whether or not Elias will come to save him" |} The prepositional phrase without the clitic -''u'' appears as ''af þus silbin'': the clitic causes the reversion of originally voiced fricatives, unvoiced at the end of a word, to their voiced form; another such example is ''wileid-u'' "do you ({{abbr|pl.|plural}}) want" from ''wileiþ'' "you ({{abbr|pl.|plural}}) want". If the first word has a [[preverb]] attached, the clitic actually splits the preverb from the verb: ''ga-u-láubjats'' "do you both believe...?" from ''galáubjats'' "you both believe". Another such clitic is ''-uh'' "and", appearing as ''-h'' after a vowel: ''ga-h-mēlida'' "and he wrote" from ''gamēlida'' "he wrote", ''urreis nim-uh'' "arise and take!" from the imperative form ''nim'' "take". After ''iþ'' or any indefinite besides ''sums'' "some" and ''anþar'' "another", -''uh'' cannot be placed; in the latter category, this is only because indefinite determiner phrases cannot move to the front of a clause. Unlike, for example, Latin -''que'', -''uh'' can only join two or more main clauses. In all other cases, the word ''jah'' "and" is used, which can also join main clauses. More than one such clitics can occur in one word: ''diz-uh-þan-sat ijōs'' "and then he seized them ({{abbr|fem.|feminine}})" from ''dissat'' "he seized" (notice again the voicing of ''diz-''), ''ga-u-ƕa-sēƕi'' "whether he saw anything" from ''gasēƕi'' "he saw".<ref>{{cite book |last=Eythórsson |first=Thórhallur |editor-last1=Thráinsson |editor-first1=Höskuldur |editor-last2=Epstein |editor-first2=Samuel David |editor-last3=Peter |editor-first3=Stever |title=Studies in Comparative Germanic Syntax |volume=II |publisher=Kluwer Academic Publishers |date=2001 |pages=117–18, 122 |chapter=Functional Categories, Cliticization, and Verb Movement in the Early Germanic Languages |isbn=978-1-402-00294-6 |name-list-style=amp}}</ref> 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