Gothic language
Earliest attested Germanic language with a sizeable text corpus.
Gothic was an East Germanic language spoken by the Goths, now extinct. Its main surviving evidence is the Codex Argenteus, a sixth-century manuscript that copies a fourth-century Bible translation. This language is the only East Germanic one with a substantial body of texts. Although it is the earliest Germanic language preserved in any significant written form, it has no living descendants.
The oldest Gothic documents date from the fourth century. By the mid-sixth century, the language was in decline, partly due to the Goths’ military defeat by the Franks, their elimination in Italy, and geographic isolation. In Spain, Gothic lost its last role as a church language when the Visigoths switched from Arianism to Nicene Christianity in 589. It survived as a domestic language in the Iberian Peninsula until the eighth century. Later manuscripts contain terms that look Gothic, but these may not belong to the same language. A separate variety, Crimean Gothic, lasted in Crimea into the late 1700s, but it lacks certain sound changes found in the Gothic of the Codex Argenteus, so it cannot be a direct descendant.
Because of its early attestation, Gothic is very important for comparative linguistics. Only a few documents survive, not enough for a full reconstruction. Most sources are translations or glosses from Greek, so foreign influences are present. The largest collection comes from several sixth-century codices that copy the Bible translation commissioned by the Arian bishop Ulfilas (Wulfila, 311–382), leader of a Visigothic Christian community in Moesia (modern Serbia, Bulgaria, and Romania). About three-quarters of the New Testament and some Old Testament fragments survive. These texts are gathered in the following codices and one inscription: the Codex Argenteus (Uppsala, with the Speyer fragment, 188 leaves), the best-preserved manuscript, dating from the sixth century and preserved by northern Ostrogoths in Italy; it contains most of the four gospels, but its language is full of borrowed Greek words and syntax copied directly from Greek. The Codex Ambrosianus (Milan) and Codex Taurinensis (Turin) together have 193 leaves with scattered New Testament passages, Old Testament excerpts (Nehemiah), and commentaries called Skeireins, likely altered by copyists. The Codex Gissensis (Gießen) was a single leaf with fragments of Luke 23–24, a Gothic-Latin diglot foun
- Language family
- East Germanic
- Attested from
- 4th century
- Decline
- Mid-6th century
- Last domestic use
- 8th century in Iberian Peninsula
- Survival
- Crimean Gothic until 18th century
- Known for
- Earliest sizable Germanic texts; Codex Argenteus
Lore & Background
The oldest documents in Gothic date back to the fourth century. The language was in decline by the mid-sixth century, partly because of the military defeat of the Goths at the hands of the Franks, the elimination of the Goths in Italy, and geographic isolation. In Spain, the Gothic language lost its last and probably already declining function as a church language when the Visigoths converted from Arianism to Nicene Christianity in 589. The language survived as a domestic language in the Iberian Peninsula as late as the eighth century. A language known as Crimean Gothic survived in Crimea as late as the second half of the 18th century, though lacking certain sound changes characteristic of Gothic, it cannot be a lineal descendant of the language attested in the Codex Argenteus.
Reader's Guide
Gothic is of considerable interest in comparative linguistics due to the existence of early attested texts. The largest body of surviving documentation consists of various codices, mostly from the sixth century, copying the Bible translation commissioned by the Arian bishop Ulfilas (311–382). Roughly three-quarters of the New Testament and some fragments of the Old Testament have survived. The Codex Argenteus, the best-preserved Gothic manuscript, contains a large portion of the four gospels but is replete with borrowed Greek words and Greek usages, with syntax often copied directly from the Greek. Apart from biblical texts, the only substantial Gothic document composed originally in the language is the Skeireins, a few pages of commentary on the Gospel of John. Very few medieval secondary sources reference Gothic after about 800. The term 'Gothic language' generally refers to the language of Ulfilas, though the attestations themselves date largely from the 6th century, long after Ulfilas died.
Did You Know?
- Gothic is the only East Germanic language with a sizeable text corpus.
- The Codex Argenteus is a 6th-century copy of a 4th-century Bible translation.
- Crimean Gothic survived into the second half of the 18th century but is not a lineal descendant of the language in the Codex Argenteus.
- The Mangup Graffiti, discovered in 2015, date from the mid-9th century and may be the youngest attestation of the Gothic alphabet.
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