Vandalic language

Vandalic was the Germanic language spoken by the Vandals during roughly the 3rd to 6th centuries. It was probably closely related to Gothic, and, as such, is traditionally classified as an East Germanic language. Its attestation is very fragmentary, mainly due to the Vandals' constant migrations and late adoption of writing. All modern sources from the time when Vandalic was spoken are protohistoric.

The Vandals, Hasdingi and Silingi established themselves in Gallaecia (northern Portugal and Galicia) and in southern Spain, following other Germanic and non-Germanic peoples (Visigoths, Alans and Suebi) in c. 410 before they moved to North Africa in the 430s. Their kingdom flourished in the early 6th century, but after their defeat in 536 they were placed under Byzantine administration and their language likely disappeared before the end of the century.

Attestation

Very little is known about the Vandalic language other than various phrases and a small number of personal names of Vandalic origin, mainly known from documents and personal names in Spanish. The regional name Andalusia is traditionally believed to have derived from Vandalic, although this claim is contested. When the Moors invaded and settled on the Iberian Peninsula from the 8th century to the end of the 15th, the region was called .

In one inscription from the Vandal Kingdom, the Christian incantation of is given in Vandalic as "" ("Lord, have mercy!"). The same phrase appears in 15 by Pseudo-Augustine: "".

The epigram in the Latin Anthology, of North African origin and disputed date, contains a fragment in a Germanic language that some authors believe to be Vandalic, although the fragment itself refers to the language as "Gothic". This may be because both languages were East Germanic and closely related; scholars have pointed out in this context that Procopius refers to the Goths, Vandals, Visigoths, and Gepids as "Gothic nations" and opines that they "are all of the Arian faith, and have one language called Gothic". The fragment reads:

Other surviving Vandalic words are , "master" and , "King of the Vandals".

The tables below show various Vandalic words, phrases and forms that survive in (or as) names and various Latin texts. The majority of these were taken from Onesti's "Tracing the Language of the Vandals" (2015).

Grammar

Very little is known about Vandalic grammar, but some things can be extracted from Vandalic names.

Phonology and sound changes

The phonological features of Vandalic are similar to those of Gothic.

Vowels

The Proto-Germanic long vowel *ē is often preserved in Vandalic names (, ), but it could become ''i'' when unstressed: , .

The Proto-Germanic short vowel *e turned into ''i'' in Vandalic when it was not preceded by *. For example, contains -''i'' because ''g'' precedes the vowel, but retains the *e since ''r'' precedes the vowel.

Proto-Germanic *ō turns into in Vandalic, while it is retained as in Gothic: (compare Proto-Germanic *blōmô), .

The Proto-Germanic diphthong *eu tends to come down to Vandalic as ''eu''. Take for example the form - ('people'), as opposed to the Gothic (), where it has changed to .

The Proto-Germanic diphthong *ai is preserved as , but tends to become later on. For example, the name changes to in later documents.

Consonants

The Proto-Germanic *z is also preserved in the language as a sibilant (always found written ''s'' or as part of ''x''), as opposed to having undergone rhotacism as it has in North or West Germanic. For example, compare the Vandalic form (as in ) 'spear' to Old English .

The word-initial inherited from Proto-Germanic seems to have been lost early in Vandalic (e.g., the element in and , from Proto-Germanic 'army'). However, royal names on Vandal coins use a conservative official spelling, with the ''h'' always being written.

The Proto-Germanic cluster *-ww- can be found strengthened to -''g''.

The Proto-Germanic cluster *-tj- can become , as in from Proto-Germanic .

Declension and word-formation

The original Proto-Germanic *-z used to mark the nominative masculine singular in nominals, which was lost in West Germanic early on, is attested within some preserved Vandalic forms as -''s'' or as part of -''x'' (occasionally found Romanized in some name attestations as ''-us''). This marker is potentially to be deemed an archaic feature since it is lost in most words, with complete lost within Ostrogothic names from the 6th century onward.

Similar to Gothic, Vandalic does not seem to have i-umlaut. One example of items that demonstrate the lack of umlaut are names that contain the form * (< Proto-Germanic 'army'): , , , vs. Old English , the latter of which does does show umlaut with the Proto-Germanic *''a'' having shifted to ''e''.

The epithet 'king of the Vandals' gives possible attestation of a genitive plural ending (cf. Gothic -ē), albeit written as ''i'' within this form. Old Germanic languages outside of East Germanic have -''a'' (as in Old English and Old Norse) or -''o'' (as in Old Dutch or Old High German) as their equivalents of this ending instead; compare Old English against the potential Vandalic form *.

Some elements found within names are attested in declined forms. For example, the genitive of * is attested as .

Latin influence

* The Proto-Germanic fricatives *þ and *ð often turned into ''t'' or ''d'', but there are also some names in which they were retained or otherwise represented distinctly: , .
* Initial ''h''- was also lost under Latin influence; however, it is still found included in the spelling of some royal names on Vandalic coins.
* Initial ''w''- sometimes changed into (, < Proto-Germanic , , < ); in other instances, it is spelled as ''v'' (pronounced ): (from Proto-Germanic ).
* Vandalic names could contain Latin elements or suffixes (, , etc.)https://www.academia.edu/1516556/THE_LANGUAGE_AND_NAMES_OF_THE_VANDALS, Nicoletta Onesti, "THE LANGUAGE AND NAMES OF THE VANDALS", https://www.academia.edu, 2009, 3, 22 February 2015

See also

* Vandals
* Gothic language
* East Germanic languages
* Languages of the Roman Empire

References

Sources

*Francovich Onesti, Nicoletta,
Tracing the Language of the Vandals
', excepted from: Francovich Onesti, ''Goti e Vandali'' (2013), 179ff.

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East Germanic languages
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Extinct languages of Africa
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