Teach Yourself Gothic

Author: * Thiudareiks Gunthigg - 1 Post on this thread out of 544 Posts sitewide.
Date: Aug 16, 2003 - 18:19

Since Gothic is the oldest Germanic language we have, it gives us a valuable philological insight into the earliest forms of the ancient Germanic language family. Apart from being a useful historical linguistic tool and an insight into the culture of the Goths, Gothic is also widely regarded as a beautiful language in its own right. Amongst its many fans was J.R.R. Tolkien, who once said that even a list of Gothic words could move him simply by the aesthetic beauty of their sounds and forms. He liked to write poetry in Gothic, using the ancient Germanic alliterative style, including one called Bagme Bloma or 'Flower of the Trees.

Bagme Bloma
by J.R.R. Tolkien

Brunaim bairiþ bairka bogum laubans liubans liudandei, gilwagroni, glitmunjandei, bagme bloma, blauandei, fagrafahsa, liþulinþi, fraujinondei fairguni. Wopjand windos, wagjand lindos, lutiþ limam laikandei; slaihta, raihta, hweitarinda, razda rodeiþ reirandei, bandwa bairhta, runa goda, þiuda meina þiuþjandei.

Andanahti milhmam neipiþ, liuhteiþ liuhmam lauhmuni; laubos liubai fliugand lausai, tulgus, triggwa, standandei. Bairka baza beidiþ blaika fraujinondei fairguni.

Flower of the Trees

The birch bears fine leaves on shining boughs it grows pale green and glittering the flower of the trees in bloom fair-haired and supple-limbed the ruler of the mountain.

The winds call, they shake gently she bends her boughs low in sport smooth, straight and white-barked trembling she speaks a language a bright token, a good mystery, blessing my people.

Evening grows dark with clouds the lightning flashes, the fine leaves fly free but firm and faithful the white birch stands bare and waits, ruling the mountain.

This link will give you the text of the poem and a translation. If you click on the text you can also hear each stanza pronounced in a Gothic sound file.

The poem is part of Matt Carver's Gutrazda site, which is an excellent collection of just about all the online resources on Gothic.

Amongst the most useful Gothic site is David Salo's An Introduction to Gothic, which leads a beginner through the basics of the language with some simple lessons and exercises. It's not long before you're able to translate sentences like "I gave the gold and the silver to the servant of the king." into "Ik gaf thata gulth jah thata silubr thamma skalka this thiudanis." A bit of trivia - David is also the guy who produced all the Elvish dialogue in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies.

More advanced students could then move onto W. H. Bennett's An Introduction to the Gothic Language and then use Joseph Wright's weight (and very dry) Grammar of the Gothic Language as a reference work. For some people to talk to in Gothic there's the Gutiska mailing list, which is pretty low traffic, or the Gothic-L list which has more volume but is dominated by historical discussion of the Goths these days.

Cheers,
Thiu