Gothic alphabet

Last updated
Gothic
Wulfila bibel.jpg
Script type
Time period
From c. 350, in decline by 600
DirectionLeft-to-right  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Languages Gothic
Related scripts
Parent systems
Greek script augmented with Latin and possibly Runic (questionable)
  • Gothic
ISO 15924
ISO 15924 Goth(206),Gothic
Unicode
Unicode alias
Gothic
U+10330–U+1034F
 This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.For the distinction between [ ], / / and  , see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

The Gothic alphabet is an alphabet used for writing the Gothic language. It was developed in the 4th century AD by Ulfilas (or Wulfila), a Gothic preacher of Cappadocian Greek descent, for the purpose of translating the Bible. [1]

Contents

The alphabet essentially uses uncial forms of the Greek alphabet, with a few additional letters to express Gothic phonology:

Origin

Ulfilas is thought to have consciously chosen to avoid the use of the older Runic alphabet for this purpose, as it was heavily connected with pagan beliefs and customs. [2] Also, the Greek-based script probably helped to integrate the Gothic nation into the dominant Greco-Roman culture around the Black Sea. [3]

Letters

Below is a table of the Gothic alphabet. [4] Two letters used in its transliteration are not used in current English: thorn þ (representing /θ/), and hwair ƕ (representing //).

As with the Greek alphabet, Gothic letters were also assigned numerical values. When used as numerals, letters were written either between two dots (•𐌹𐌱• = 12) or with an overline (𐌹𐌱 = 12). Two letters, 𐍁 (90) and 𐍊 (900), have no phonetic value.

The letter names are recorded in a 9th-century manuscript of Alcuin (Codex Vindobonensis 795). Most of them seem to be Gothic forms of names also appearing in the rune poems. The names are given in their attested forms followed by the reconstructed Gothic forms and their meanings. [5]

LetterTranslit.CompareGothic name PGmc rune name IPA Numeric value XML entity
Gothic letter ahsa.svg 𐌰a Α, aza < *ans "god" or asks "ash"*ansuz /a, aː/1&#x10330;
Gothic letter bairkan.svg 𐌱b Β, Ⲃbercna < *bairka "birch"*berkanan /b/ [ b , β ]2&#x10331;
Gothic letter giba.svg 𐌲g Γ, Ⲅgeuua < giba "gift"*gebō /ɡ/ [ ɡ , ɣ , x ]; /n/ [ ŋ ]3&#x10332;
Gothic letter dags.svg 𐌳d Δ, D, Ⲇdaaz < dags "day"*dagaz /d/ [ d , ð ]4&#x10333;
Gothic letter aihvus.svg 𐌴e Ε, Ⲉeyz < aiƕs "horse" or eiws "yew"*eihwaz, *ehwaz //5&#x10334;
Gothic letter qairthra.svg 𐌵q Greek Digamma cursive 06.svg (Ϛ), ϰ, Ⲋ(?)quetra < *qairþra ? or qairna "millstone"(see *perþō)//6&#x10335;
Gothic letter iuja.svg 𐌶z Ζ, Ⲍezec < (?) [6] *algiz /z/7&#x10336;
Gothic letter hagl.svg 𐌷h Η, Ⲏhaal < *hagal or *hagls "hail"*haglaz /h/, /x/8&#x10337;
Gothic letter thiuth.svg 𐌸þ (th) Φ, Ψ, Ⲑthyth < þiuþ "good" or þaurnus "thorn"*thurisaz /θ/9&#x10338;
Gothic letter eis.svg 𐌹i Ι, Ⲓiiz < *eis "ice"*īsaz /i/10&#x10339;
Gothic letter kusma.svg 𐌺k Κ, Ⲕchozma < *kusma or kōnja "pine sap"*kaunan /k/20&#x1033A;
Gothic letter lagus.svg 𐌻l Λ, Ⲗlaaz < *lagus "sea, lake"*laguz /l/30&#x1033B;
Gothic letter manna.svg 𐌼m Μ, Ⲙmanna < manna "man"*mannaz /m/40&#x1033C;
Gothic letter nauthus.svg 𐌽n Ν, Ⲛnoicz < nauþs "need"*naudiz /n/50&#x1033D;
Gothic letter jer.svg 𐌾j G, , Ⲝ(?)gaar < jēr "year"*jēran /j/60&#x1033E;
Gothic letter urus.svg 𐌿u , Ⲟ(?)uraz < *ūrus "aurochs"*ūruz /ʊ/, //70&#x1033F;
Gothic letter pairthra.svg 𐍀p Π, Ⲡpertra < *pairþa ?*perþō /p/80&#x10340;
Gothic numeral ninety.svg 𐍁 Ϙ, Ϥ9090&#x10341;
Gothic letter raida.svg 𐍂r R, Ⲣreda < *raida "wagon"*raidō /r/100&#x10342;
Gothic letter sauil.svg 𐍃s S, Ⲥsugil < sauil or sōjil "sun"*sôwilô /s/200&#x10343;
Gothic letter teiws.svg 𐍄t Τ, , Ⲧtyz < *tius "the god Týr"*tīwaz /t/300&#x10344;
Gothic letter winja.svg 𐍅w Υ, Ⲩuuinne < winja "field, pasture" or winna "pain"*wunjō /w/, /y/400&#x10345;
Gothic letter faihu.svg 𐍆f Ϝ, F, Ⲫ(?)fe < faihu "cattle, wealth"*fehu /ɸ/500&#x10346;
Gothic letter iggws.svg 𐍇x Χ, Ⲭenguz < *iggus or *iggws "the god Yngvi"*ingwaz /k/ [7] 600&#x10347;
Gothic letter hwair.svg 𐍈ƕ (hw) Θ, Ⲯ(?)uuaer < * hwair "kettle"//, /ʍ/700&#x10348;
Gothic letter othal.svg 𐍉ō Ω, Ο, , Ⲱutal < *ōþal "ancestral land"*ōþala //800&#x10349;
Gothic numeral nine hundred.svg 𐍊 , Ͳ (Ϡ), Ⳁ900&#x1034a;

Most of the letters have been taken over directly from the Greek alphabet, though a few have been created or modified from Latin and possibly (more controversially [8] ) Runic letters to express unique phonological features of Gothic. These are:

𐍂 (r), 𐍃 (s) and 𐍆 (f) appear to be derived from their Latin equivalents rather than from the Greek, although the equivalent Runic letters ( , and ), assumed to have been part of the Gothic futhark, possibly played some role in this choice. [12] However, Snædal claims that "Wulfila's knowledge of runes was questionable to say the least", as the paucity of inscriptions attests that knowledge and use of runes was rare among the East Germanic peoples. [8] Some variants of 𐍃 (s) are shaped like a sigma and more obviously derive from the Greek Σ. [8]

𐍇 (x) is only used in proper names and loanwords containing Greek Χ (xristus "Christ", galiugaxristus "Pseudo-Christ", zaxarias "Zacharias", aiwxaristia "eucharist"). [13]

Regarding the letters' numeric values, most correspond to those of the Greek numerals. Gothic 𐌵 takes the place of Ϝ (6), 𐌾 takes the place of ξ (60), 𐌿 that of Ο (70), and 𐍈 that of ψ (700).

Diacritics and punctuation

Diacritics and punctuation used in the Codex Argenteus include a trema placed on 𐌹i, transliterated as ï, in general applied to express diaeresis, the interpunct (·) and colon (:) as well as overlines to indicate sigla (such as xaus for xristaus) and numerals.

Unicode

The Gothic alphabet was added to the Unicode Standard in March 2001 with the release of version 3.1.

The Unicode block for Gothic is U+10330– U+1034F in the Supplementary Multilingual Plane. As older software that uses UCS-2 (the predecessor of UTF-16) assumes that all Unicode codepoints can be expressed as 16 bit numbers (U+FFFF or lower, the Basic Multilingual Plane), problems may be encountered using the Gothic alphabet Unicode range and others outside of the Basic Multilingual Plane.

Gothic [1] [2]
Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)
 0123456789ABCDEF
U+1033x𐌰𐌱𐌲𐌳𐌴𐌵𐌶𐌷𐌸𐌹𐌺𐌻𐌼𐌽𐌾𐌿
U+1034x𐍀𐍁𐍂𐍃𐍄𐍅𐍆𐍇𐍈𐍉𐍊
Notes
1. ^ As of Unicode version 15.1
2. ^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

Notes

  1. According to the testimony of the historians Philostorgius, Socrates of Constantinople and Sozomen. Cf. Streitberg (1910:20).
  2. Cf. Jensen (1969:474).
  3. Cf. Haarmann (1991:434).
  4. For a discussion of the Gothic alphabet see also Fausto Cercignani, The Elaboration of the Gothic Alphabet and Orthography, in "Indogermanische Forschungen", 93, 1988, pp. 168–185.
  5. The forms which are not attested in the Gothic corpus are marked with an asterisk. For a detailed discussion of the reconstructed forms, cf. Kirchhoff (1854). For a survey of the relevant literature, cf. Zacher (1855).
  6. Zacher arrives at *iuya, *iwja or *ius, cognate to ON ȳr, OE īw, ēow, OHG īwa "yew tree", though he admits having no ready explanation for the form ezec. Cf. Zacher (1855:10–13).
  7. Streitberg, p. 47
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Magnús Snædal (2015). "Gothic Contact with Latin" in Early Germanic Languages in Contact, Ed. John Ole Askedal and Hans Frede Nielsen.
  9. Cf. Mees (2002/2003:65).
  10. Cf. Kirchhoff (1854:55).
  11. Haarmann (1991:434).
  12. Cf. Kirchhoff (1854:55–56); Friesen (1915:306–310).
  13. Wright (1910:5).

See also

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References