Lecture 1 Introduction

The Gothic Language was THE MOST IMPORTANT OF THE OLD GERMANIC LANGUAGES because:

1. 
   It had the oldest written records – 4^th – 6^th c. A.D. (compare, Old English – 7^th c., Old High Germanic – 8^th c.).
   
2. 
   The Goths were the first Germans to become Christians. In the 4^th c. A.D Ulfilas, a Gothic bishop, translated the Bible from Greek into Gothic using a modified form of the Greek Alphabet. “Ulfilas’ Gospels” is a work of 200 pages copied in the 5^th – 6^th c. Now this copy is kept in Uppsala (Sweden) and is known as “The Silver Codex” because it is written an red background with silver and golden letters.
   
3. 
   The Gothic, having the earliest written records among the Germanic Languages, is considered to be very close to the Proto-Germanic Language and thus throws some light on the history of this common Proto-Germanic Language.
   

2. North Germanic Languages
The North Germanic tribes settled on the southern coast of Scandinavia and in Northern Denmark (since the 4^th c. A.D.). They lived relatively isolated and showed little dialectal variation at that time.
There existed one common language – Old Norse/Old Scandinavian. It had the following characteristics:

• 
  It used the original Germanic Alphabet called the Runes/the Runic Alphabet. It appeared in the 3^rd – 4^th c. A.D. It has come down to us in runic inscriptions – separate words written/carved on objects made of wood, stone, metal (more about it in Lecture 7).
  
• 
  It was spoken by all North Germanic tribes.
  

In the 9^th – 10^th c. A.D. the Scandinavians started their voyages to America and islands in the Atlantic Ocean (Leif Ericson, a Scandinavia raider, was the first to land on the American Continent). In addition to this overpopulation in the fjord areas caused the migration of the people to inner Scandinavia. This provoked the beginning of the linguistic differentiation. In Scandinavia the linguistic division corresponded to the political division: there were 3 kingdoms (Sweden, Denmark and Norway) that were constantly fighting for dominance and they had 3 respective languages (earliest records in these languages date back to the 13^th c.):

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