Crimean Gothic was an
East Germanic
East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth.
Etymology
As in other languages, the word is formed from the ...
language spoken by the
Crimean Goths
The Crimean Goths were Greuthungi-Gothic tribes who remained in the lands around the Black Sea, especially in Crimea. They were the longest-lasting of the Gothic communities. Their existence is well attested through the ages, though the exact p ...
in some isolated locations in
Crimea
Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...
until the late 18th century.
Attestation
The existence of a Germanic dialect in Crimea is noted in a number of sources from the 9th century to the 18th century. However, only a single source provides any details of the language itself: a letter by the
Flemish
Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...
ambassador
Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq
Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq (1522 in Comines – 29 October 1592 in Saint-Germain-sous-Cailly; la, Augerius Gislenius Busbequius), sometimes Augier Ghislain de Busbecq, was a 16th-century Flemish writer, herbalist and diplomat in the employ ...
, dated 1562 and first published in 1589, gives a list of some eighty words and a song supposedly in the language.
Busbecq's account is problematic in a number of ways. First, his
informants
An informant (also called an informer or, as a slang term, a “snitch”) is a person who provides privileged information about a person or organization to an agency. The term is usually used within the law-enforcement world, where informan ...
were not unimpeachable; one was a Greek speaker who knew Crimean Gothic as a second language, and the other was a Goth who had abandoned his native language in favour of Greek. Second, Busbecq's transcription was likely influenced by his own language, a
Flemish
Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...
dialect of
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
. Finally, there are undoubted
typographical error
A typographical error (often shortened to typo), also called a misprint, is a mistake (such as a spelling mistake) made in the typing of printed (or electronic) material. Historically, this referred to mistakes in manual type-setting (typography). ...
s in known extant versions of the account.
Nonetheless, much of the vocabulary cited by Busbecq is unmistakably Germanic and was recognised by him as such:
:
Medial -- in the Biblical Gothic examples represents .
Busbecq also cites a number of words which he did not recognise but which are now known to have Germanic
cognate
In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymology, etymological ancestor in a proto-language, common parent language. Because language c ...
s:
: archaic
Busbecq mentions a
definite article
An article is any member of a class of dedicated words that are used with noun phrases to mark the identifiability of the referents of the noun phrases. The category of articles constitutes a part of speech.
In English, both "the" and "a(n)" ar ...
, which he records as being or . This variation may indicate either a gender distinction or
allomorph
In linguistics, an allomorph is a variant phonetic form of a morpheme, or, a unit of meaning that varies in sound and spelling without changing the meaning. The term ''allomorph'' describes the realization of phonological variations for a specif ...
y — the latter whereof would be somewhat akin to the English "the", which is pronounced either or .
In 1780,
Stanisław Bohusz Siestrzeńcewicz
Stanisław Bohusz Siestrzeńcewicz (Belarusian: Станіслаў Богуш-Сестранцэвіч, 1731–1826) was a Polish clergyman who became the first bishop of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Mohilev ( Mogilev), an Archbishop from 17 ...
, an
Archbishop
In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...
of
Mogilev
Mogilev (russian: Могилёв, Mogilyov, ; yi, מאָלעוו, Molev, ) or Mahilyow ( be, Магілёў, Mahilioŭ, ) is a city in eastern Belarus, on the Dnieper River, about from the border with Russia's Smolensk Oblast and from the bor ...
, visited the southern coast of
Crimea
Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...
and
Sevastopol
Sevastopol (; uk, Севасто́поль, Sevastópolʹ, ; gkm, Σεβαστούπολις, Sevastoúpolis, ; crh, Акъя́р, Aqyár, ), sometimes written Sebastopol, is the largest city in Crimea, and a major port on the Black Sea ...
. According to his account, he met some
Tatars
The Tatars ()[Tatar]
in the Collins English Dictionary is an umbrella term for different who spoke a language similar to
Low German
:
:
:
:
:
(70,000)
(30,000)
(8,000)
, familycolor = Indo-European
, fam2 = Germanic
, fam3 = West Germanic
, fam4 = North Sea Germanic
, ancestor = Old Saxon
, ancestor2 = Middle L ...
; this was probably a form of Crimean Gothic.
Identification and classification
While the initial identification of this language as "Gothic" probably rests on ethnological rather than linguistic grounds — that is, the speakers were identified as Goths, and therefore the language must be Gothic — it appears to share a number of distinctive phonological developments with the Gothic of
Ulfilas
Ulfilas (–383), also spelled Ulphilas and Orphila, all Latinized forms of the unattested Gothic form *𐍅𐌿𐌻𐍆𐌹𐌻𐌰 Wulfila, literally "Little Wolf", was a Goth of Cappadocian Greek descent who served as a bishop and missionary ...
' Bible. For example, the word ("egg") shows the typical Gothic "sharpening" of
Proto-Germanic
Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages.
Proto-Germanic eventually developed from pre-Proto-Germanic into three Germanic branc ...
to (as in
Ulfilian Gothic ("went") from ), being from Proto-Germanic .
There are also examples of features preserved in Crimean Gothic and Biblical Gothic but which have undergone changes in West and North Germanic. For example, both Crimean Gothic and Biblical Gothic preserve Germanic as a
sibilant
Sibilants are fricative consonants of higher amplitude and pitch, made by directing a stream of air with the tongue towards the teeth. Examples of sibilants are the consonants at the beginning of the English words ''sip'', ''zip'', ''ship'', and ...
, while it became in all other Germanic dialects: Crimean Gothic and Biblical Gothic vs. German , all meaning 'he'. Also, Crimean Gothic and Biblical Gothic both preserve the medial in their reflexes of Proto-Germanic (stem ) 'four': in the Crimean Gothic and in the latter. This is lost in all North Germanic languages which have forms descending from Old Norse and all West Germanic languages, which have forms descending from : Old English , Old Saxon , Old High German .
However, there are problems in assuming that Crimean Gothic simply represents a later stage in the development of the Gothic attested in Ulfilas' Bible. Some innovations in Biblical Gothic are not found in Crimean Gothic. For example:
* Crimean Gothic preserves Germanic , whereas in Biblical Gothic it has become , e.g. Crimean Gothic and vs. Biblical Gothic and
* Crimean Gothic preserves Germanic before , whereas Biblical Gothic has , e.g. Crimean Gothic vs. Biblical Gothic .
However, there also seem to be developments similar to those that occurred in varieties of West Germanic, such as the change of to a
stop
Stop may refer to:
Places
* Stop, Kentucky, an unincorporated community in the United States
* Stop (Rogatica), a village in Rogatica, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Facilities
* Bus stop
* Truck stop, a type of rest stop for truck d ...
, possibly exhibited in Crimean Gothic ( Biblical Gothic ). Several historical accounts mention similarity of Crimean Gothic to
Low German
:
:
:
:
:
(70,000)
(30,000)
(8,000)
, familycolor = Indo-European
, fam2 = Germanic
, fam3 = West Germanic
, fam4 = North Sea Germanic
, ancestor = Old Saxon
, ancestor2 = Middle L ...
, as well as the intelligibility of Crimean Gothic to German speakers, with the Dutch-speaking Busbecq's account being by far the most important.
There are two alternative solutions: that Crimean Gothic presents a separate branch of
East Germanic
East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth.
Etymology
As in other languages, the word is formed from the ...
, distinct from Ulfilas' Gothic; or that Crimean Gothic is actually descended from the dialect of
West Germanic
The West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three branches of the Germanic family of languages (the others being the North Germanic and the extinct East Germanic languages). The West Germanic branch is classically subdivided into t ...
settlers who migrated to Crimea in the early
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
and whose language was subsequently influenced by Gothic. Both of these possibilities were first suggested in the 19th century and are most recently argued by Stearns and
Grønvik, respectively. While there is no consensus on a definitive solution to this problem, it is accepted that Crimean Gothic is not a descendant of Biblical Gothic.
The song recorded by Busbecq is less obviously Germanic and has proved impossible to interpret definitively. There is no consensus as to whether it is actually in Crimean Gothic.
Other sources
The only non-Busbecqian additions to this very small corpus are two potentially Crimean Gothic terms from other sources: the first is a
proper name
A proper noun is a noun that identifies a single entity and is used to refer to that entity (''Africa'', ''Jupiter'', '' Sarah'', ''Microsoft)'' as distinguished from a common noun, which is a noun that refers to a class of entities (''continent, ...
, , found in a
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
inscription on a grave stone dating from the 5th century AD; the second word, ("house"), may have lived on as a loan word meaning "roof lath" in the
Crimean Tatar language
Crimean Tatar () also called Crimean (), is a Kipchak Turkic language spoken in Crimea and the Crimean Tatar diasporas of Uzbekistan, Turkey, Romania, and Bulgaria, as well as small communities in the United States and Canada. It should n ...
.
In 2015, five Gothic inscriptions were found by Andrey Vinogradov, a Russian historian, on stone plates excavated in
Mangup
, settlement_type = Historic settlement
, image_skyline = Mangup Fortress2.jpg
, imagesize = 250px
, image_caption = Ruins of the Gate of the Citadel at Mangup
, pushpin_map = Crimea
, pushpin_re ...
in 1938, and deciphered by him and Maksim Korobov.
[ A slightly revised German translation was published as "Gotische Graffito-Inschriften aus der Bergkrim", Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und Literatur 145 (2016) 141-157]
English abstract
/ref> The inscriptions were written in the second half of the 9th century or in the first half of the 10th century.
One of them is a Biblical Gothic version of Psalm 77
Psalm 77 (Greek numbering: Psalm 76) is the 77th psalm in the biblical Book of Psalms. In the slightly different numbering system of the Greek Septuagint version of the bible, and in its Latin translation in the Vulgate, this psalm is ''Psalm 76 ...
:13. It is not included in the known manuscripts of the Gothic Bible
The Gothic Bible or Wulfila Bible is the Christian Bible in the Gothic language spoken by the Eastern Germanic (Goths, Gothic) tribes in the early Middle Ages.
The translation was allegedly made by the Arianism, Arian bishop and missionary U ...
(which mostly preserve New Testament texts), but the orthography and phrasing matches that of Wulfila's Bible. In the inscription, it is followed by a sentence which does not come from the Bible, but again copies or mimics Biblical Gothic:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
"Who is so great a God as our God? Thou art the God that doest wonders.
One rose in eternity from the dead and in the world ..."
The Mangup inscriptions
__NOTOC__
Mangup (russian: Мангуп, uk, Мангуп, crh, Mangup, jv, Mangap) also known as ''Mangup Kale'' (''kale'' means "fortress" in Turkish) is a historic fortress in Crimea, located on a plateau about 13 kilometres due east of Sevas ...
may be viewed as a translation of a Byzantine formula.
:
:
:
"Lord, help your servant Damjanus from hevine ard?and the sinner"
References
Notes
Sources
* MacDonald Stearns, ''Crimean Gothic. Analysis and Etymology of the Corpus'', Saratoga 1978. Includes Latin text of Busbecq's report and English translation.
* MacDonald Stearns, "Das Krimgotische". In: Heinrich Beck (ed.), ''Germanische Rest- und Trümmersprachen'', Berlin/New York 1989, 175–194.
* Ottar Grønvik
Ottar Nicolai Grønvik (21 October 1916 – 15 May 2008) was a Norwegian philologist and runologist.
He was a lecturer from 1959 and associate professor from 1965 to 1986 at the University of Oslo. His doctoral thesis, which earned him the dr.phi ...
, ''Die dialektgeographische Stellung des Krimgotischen und die krimgotische cantilena'', Oslo 1983.
External links
Busbecq's account, in Latin
Gothic Online
by Todd B. Krause and Jonathan Slocum, free online lessons at th
Linguistics Research Center
at the University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
, contains
lesson on Crimean Gothic
bibliography by Christian T. Petersen
{{Germanic languages
Gothic language
Gothic, Crimean
Extinct languages of Europe
Languages extinct in the 18th century