Gothic alphabet
Gothic | ||
---|---|---|
Script type | ||
Time period | From c. 350, in decline by 600 | |
Direction | Left-to-right Unicode range | U+10330–U+1034F |
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]
The alphabet essentially uses uncial forms of the Greek alphabet, with a few additional letters to express Gothic phonology:
- Latin F and G
- a questionably /
- the letter hwair (ƕ) to express the Gothic labiovelar.
Origin
Ulfilas is thought to have consciously chosen to avoid the use of the older
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 /hʷ/).
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]
Letter | Translit. | Compare | Gothic name | PGmc rune name |
IPA | Numeric value | XML entity | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
𐌰 | a | Α, Ⲁ |
aza < *ans "god" or *asks "ash" | * ansuz |
/a, aː/ | 1 | 𐌰 | |
𐌱 | b | Β , Ⲃ |
bercna < *bairka "birch" | *berkanan | /b/ [b, β] | 2 | 𐌱 | |
𐌲 | g | Γ , Ⲅ |
geuua < giba "gift" | *gebō | / n/ [ŋ ] |
3 | 𐌲 | |
𐌳 | d | Δ, D , Ⲇ |
daaz < dags "day" | *dagaz | / d, ð ] |
4 | 𐌳 | |
𐌴 | e | Ε , Ⲉ |
eyz < *aiƕs "horse" or *eiws "yew" | *eihwaz, *ehwaz | /eː/ | 5 | 𐌴 | |
𐌵 | q | ϰ , Ⲋ(?) |
quetra < *qairþra ? or qairna "millstone" | (see *perþō) | /kʷ/ | 6 | 𐌵 | |
𐌶 | z | Ζ , Ⲍ |
ezec < (?)[6] Likely related to *idzēta.[7] | *algiz | /z/ | 7 | 𐌶 | |
𐌷 | h | Η , Ⲏ |
haal < *hagal or *hagls "hail" | *haglaz | /h/, /x/ | 8 | 𐌷 | |
𐌸 | þ (th) | Ψ , Ⲑ |
thyth < þiuþ "good" or þaurnus "thorn" | * thurisaz |
/θ/ | 9 | 𐌸 | |
𐌹 | i | Ι , Ⲓ |
iiz < *eis "ice" | *īsaz | /i/ | 10 | 𐌹 | |
𐌺 | k | Κ , Ⲕ |
chozma < *kusma or *kōnja "pine sap" | *kaunan | /k/ | 20 | 𐌺 | |
𐌻 | l | Λ , Ⲗ |
laaz < *lagus "sea, lake" | *laguz | / l / |
30 | 𐌻 | |
𐌼 | m | Μ , Ⲙ |
manna < manna "man" | *mannaz | /m/ | 40 | 𐌼 | |
𐌽 | n | Ν , Ⲛ |
noicz < nauþs "need" | *naudiz | / n / |
50 | 𐌽 | |
𐌾 | j | ᛃ , Ⲝ(?) |
gaar < jēr "year, harvest" | *jēran | /j/ | 60 | 𐌾 | |
𐌿 | u | ᚢ , Ⲟ(?) |
uraz < *ūrus "aurochs" | *ūruz | /ʊ/, /uː/ | 70 | 𐌿 | |
𐍀 | p | Π, Ⲡ | pertra < *pairþa ? | *perþō | /p/ | 80 | 𐍀 | |
𐍁 | Ϙ , Ϥ |
90 | 90 | 𐍁 | ||||
𐍂 | r | R, Ⲣ | reda < *raida "wagon" | *raidō | / r / |
100 | 𐍂 | |
𐍃 | s | S, Ⲥ | sugil < sauil or *sōjil "sun" | * sôwilô |
/s/ | 200 | 𐍃 | |
𐍄 | t | ᛏ , Ⲧ |
tyz < *tius "the god Týr" | * tīwaz |
/ t / |
300 | 𐍄 | |
𐍅 | w | Υ , Ⲩ |
uuinne < winja "field, pasture" or winna "pain" | *wunjō | / w/, /y / |
400 | 𐍅 | |
𐍆 | f | Ϝ, F , Ⲫ(?) |
fe < faihu "wealth, chattel" | *fehu | /ɸ/ | 500 | 𐍆 | |
𐍇 | x | Χ , Ⲭ |
enguz < *iggus or *iggws "the god Yngvi" | *ingwaz | /k/[8] | 600 | 𐍇 | |
𐍈 | ƕ (hw) | Θ , Ⲯ(?) |
uuaer < *hwair "kettle" | /hʷ/, /ʍ/ | 700 | 𐍈 | ||
𐍉 | ō | ᛟ , Ⲱ |
utal < *ōþal "ancestral land" | * ōþala |
/oː/ | 800 | 𐍉 | |
𐍊 | Ϡ ), Ⳁ |
900 | 𐍊 |
Most of the letters have been taken over directly from the
- 𐌵 - q; derived either from a form of Greek
- 𐌸 - þ; derived either from Greek
- 𐌾 - j; derived from Latin G /ɡ/[9]
- 𐌿 - u; possibly an allograph of Greek ᚢ /u/)[12]
- 𐍈 - ƕ; potentially derived from Greek Θ /θ/ with phonetic reassignment; possibly the letterform was switched with 𐌸;[9] also possibly pictographic in nature, with O for rounding and • for aspiration.[13]
- 𐍉 - o; derived either from Greek Α to Ω.[15]
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 (
𐍇 (x) is only used in proper names and loanwords containing Greek Χ (xristus "Christ", galiugaxristus "Pseudo-Christ", zaxarias "Zacharias", aiwxaristia "eucharist").[17]
Regarding the letters' numeric values, most correspond to those of the
Diacritics and punctuation
Diacritics and punctuation used in the
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
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) | ||||||||||||||||
0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F | |
U+1033x | 𐌰 | 𐌱 | 𐌲 | 𐌳 | 𐌴 | 𐌵 | 𐌶 | 𐌷 | 𐌸 | 𐌹 | 𐌺 | 𐌻 | 𐌼 | 𐌽 | 𐌾 | 𐌿 |
U+1034x | 𐍀 | 𐍁 | 𐍂 | 𐍃 | 𐍄 | 𐍅 | 𐍆 | 𐍇 | 𐍈 | 𐍉 | 𐍊 | |||||
Notes |
Notes
- ^ According to the testimony of the historians Philostorgius, Socrates of Constantinople and Sozomen. Cf. Streitberg (1910:20).
- ^ Cf. Jensen (1969:474).
- ^ Cf. Haarmann (1991:434).
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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).
- ^ 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).
- ^ Miller (2019:22)
- ^ Streitberg, p. 47
- ^ a b c d e f g h Magnús Snædal (2015). "Gothic Contact with Latin" in Early Germanic Languages in Contact, Ed. John Ole Askedal and Hans Frede Nielsen.
- ^ Cf. Mees (2002/2003:65)
- ^ Marchand (1973:20)
- ^ Cf. Kirchhoff (1854:55).
- ^ Miller (2019:23)
- ^ Haarmann (1991:434).
- ^ a b Miller (2019:25)
- ^ Cf. Kirchhoff (1854:55–56); Friesen (1915:306–310).
- ^ Wright (1910:5).
See also
- Ring of Pietroassa
- Help:Gothic Unicode Fonts
References
- Braune, Wilhelm (1952). Gotische Grammatik. Halle: Max Niemeyer.
- Cercignani, Fausto (1988). "The Elaboration of the Gothic Alphabet and Orthography", in Indogermanische Forschungen, 93, pp. 168–185.
- Dietrich, Franz (1862). Über die Aussprache des Gotischen Wärend der Zeit seines Bestehens. Marburg: N. G. Elwert'sche Universitätsbuchhandlung.
- Friesen, Otto von (1915). "Gotische Schrift" in Hoops, J. Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde, Bd. II. pp. 306–310. Strassburg: Karl J. Trübner.
- Haarmann, Harald (1991). Universalgeschichte der Schrift. Frankfurt: Campus.
- Jensen, Hans (1969). Die Schrift in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart. Berlin: Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften.
- Kirchhoff, Adolf (1854). Das gothische Runenalphabet. Berlin: Wilhelm Hertz.
- Mees, Bernard (2002/2003). "Runo-Gothica: the runes and the origin of Wulfila's script", in Die Sprache, 43, pp. 55–79.
- Streitberg, Wilhelm (1910). Gotisches Elementarbuch. Heidelberg: Carl Winter.
- Weingärtner, Wilhelm (1858). Die Aussprache des Gotischen zur Zeit Ulfilas. Leipzig: T. O. Weigel.
- Wright, Joseph (1910). Grammar of the Gothic Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Zacher, Julius (1855). Das gothische Alphabet Vulvilas und das Runenalphabet. Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus.
- Miller, Gary (2019). The Oxford Gothic Grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Marchand, James (1973). The Sounds and Phonemes of Wulfila's Gothic. De Gruyter Mouton.
External links
- Omniglot's Gothic writing page
- Pater Noster and Ave Maria in Gothic
- JavaScript Gothic transliterator
- Unicode code chart for Gothic
- WAZU JAPAN's Gallery of Gothic Unicode Fonts
- Dr. Pfeffer's Gothic Unicode Fonts
- GNU FreeFont Unicode font family with the Gothic range in a serif face.