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Gothic 7

Mt 6:7 bidjandansuyyan ni filuwaurdjaiy swaswe yai yiudo. yugkeiy im auk ei in filuwaurdein seinai andhausjaindau

But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

bidjandansuyyan 'but when ye pray'.  We can't do much with this, except to note the stylistic variation from iy yu yan bidjais. This is obviously some sort of participial construction of the verb bidjan.

ni filuwaurdjaiy = another of those -jan verbs, which we have learned to handle. As Junius, we know German (we were born in Heidelberg), so we think this is the verb waurdjan 'to word', with the prefix filu- 'much'.  You and I have already figured out that the -ai- signifies a subjunctive, used as a sort of imperative, and that the -y indicates the 2d pers. pl., so, this means 'do not many-word'.

yai = nom. pl. of the article 'the'.

yiudo = heathen

yugkeiy im = as Junius, we know Greek, so we can see that this is thunkeiy, German stands us in good stand here: thunkeiy = es duenkt 'they think', an impersonal, so that yugkeiy im = 'it bethinketh them'. What a great language! Passives of its own impersonals.

auk = 'for'. We note the position in the sentence; just like Latin enim.

ei = like Latin ut

in filuwaurdein = in their many-wordedness.  Our father, Junius Senior, edited the Greek Bible, which we also have nearby, so we notice the Greek, which is just like the Gothic: en th polylogia 'in the polylogy'. Polylogy = many-wordedness. It may not exist in Gothic, but we can try it at the next cocktail party. Notice how we make abstracts from -jan verbs by turning the -jan into -ein.

seinai = our reflexive possessive, just like in Swedish. This seems to be dative singular feminine.

andhausjaindau = our old friend the subjunctive (depending on ei) passive, 3d pl. of andhausjan 'to be heard'.  The bold among us will already have noticed the rhotacism in yus = German dir, and may connect this with hoeren, 'dass sie enthoert werden' (if we can make up English words, why not German ones, cf. Betz's translation of the intro of the Benediktinerregel, with its entgegenhoeren).
We can even start using our Gothic (Hot Gothic).  The teen-age hoods lean on their horns as they pass my house: yugkeiy im auk in filuhaurnein seinai hausjaindau, I say to my wife. Or it works for claxoning in The Last Time I Saw Paris. How do you talk to your bet broker or your trip arranger in Gothic: bokjan. How does one get promoted? Filubokjan. Yugkeiy im auk in filubokein seinai hauhjaindau.

'Praying then, don't ye use many words, like the heathen; for they think that they will be heard through their use of many words' (battology; cf. the Greek and your dictionary; I didn't make this one up).

Gothic 8

Mt 6:8 ni galeikoy nu yaim. wait auk atta izwar yizei jus yaurbuy fauryizei jus bidjaiy ina.

Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.

ni galeikoy = a funny ending on the verb, but is still 2d pl.  galeikoy = 'be like', the leik is cognate to 'like', just like German gleichen (Germans like to add on g- at the beginning of stuff, cf. Gunst, Gleis. Maybe the Goths did also.

nu = now, well (think Yiddish nu)

yaim = unto them (we have seen -m as a mark of the dat. pl. before)

wait = 'knows', cf. wot and German weiss.

auk = we saw this above in the meaning of 'for', and we noted its position, like that of Latin enim.

atta izwar = y'all's father. BTW, someone asks about y'all.  I forget that not everyone is as English-enabled as I; if you are of the German persuasion, y'all is ihr.  It can also be used to one person, but when it is, it means 'you and yours'; if I say 'wie geht's euch heute' in German to one person (unless it's back in the 18th C.) it means 'how y'all doing today' (how are you and yours doing).

yizei = what. We have seen -ei as a sort of relativizer, and this looks like it must be the genitive of the article or the demonstrative pronoun: 'that of which'

jus = y'all.  How it gladdens a Southerner's heart to see that the Goths had a y'all, but y'all can render it as ye if ye want to. Remember we noticed that Gothic -s- and -s often = West Germanic -r- and -r, so this is probably cognate to German ihr.

yaurbuy = y'all need.  We cannot really figure this out at the moment, but we have determined that it takes the genitive, like German beduerfen used to; hey! I'll bet duerfen is our cognate.

fauryizei = faur 'before', yiz + ei.

jus bidjaiy = fauryizei must require the subjunctive.  No! it is -ei, as we said above.

ina 'him'. Does bidjan take the accusative? Even though Bettina did say 'Ich bitte Dir', I'll bet you German says 'ich bitte dich'. What a language!

Note that we have done all this, as Junius did, without grammar, without dictionary. The more languages you learn, the more this method will appeal to you. We have made mistakes, but we don't recognize these, so who cares?

Auch an Goethe hat man Fehler entdeckt.

Gothic 9

Speaking of forgetting, I forgot to continue the Gothic lessons:

Mt 6:9 swa nu bidjaiy jus: atta unsar yu in himinam weihnai namo yein.
Mt 6:10  qimai yiudinassus yeins. wairyai wilja yeins. swe in himina jah ana airyai.
Mt 6:11 hlaif unsarana yana sinteinan gif uns himma daga.

MAT 6:9  After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
MAT 6:10  Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
MAT 6:11  Give us this day our daily bread.

swa = so

nu = now, therefore

bidjaiy = subjunctive used as imperative, as we noted earlier. bidjan = 'to pray', cf. our bead (check etymology)

jus = y'all.

atta = discussed at length above in lesson 4

unsar = our, cf. German unser; note OE loss of nasal before spirant.

yu = thou

in himinam = dative plural, as in the Greek; being Junius, we know Greek and look in the Greek Bible, noting that Gothic uses plural to mean 'skies', probably a Hellenism.

qimai = subjunctive.  We think q may = [kw]; maybe some kind of sound law (Junius was fuzzy on sound laws) is at work here.

yiudinassus = kingdom (we cannot figure this one out yet).

wairyai = subjunctive. We are reminded of German werde (we are still not too sure about the sound of y, but equate it tentatively with Old English thorn, Mod Eng th.

wilja = will

yeins = nom. masc. poss. adj. We note that wilja is masculine.

swe = as, we saw this above in swaswe 'sowie'.

in himina = in heaven, not 'in the skies'; dat. sg.

jah = and

ana airyai = on earth. No problem; this is probably the dative sg. of a feminine noun.

hlaif = bread, cognate with OE hla/f, Mod. Engl. loaf. We note loss of h- in hl-, as in German. We also note the regular correspondence Gothic ai, OE a/, Mod Engl. long o.  Instead of having God wot rhyme with not, we decide to make it rhyme with goat, since we saw wait 'knows' above.

unsarana = unsar + masc. sg. ending.

yana sinteinan = if unsarana = German unseren, then yana = German den; boy, we are cooking, but we do not know what to do with sinteinan.

gif uns = give (imperative) us. Again we note that n is lost in Old English before spirants.

himma daga = dative singular.  We know our native language (Danish), with any number of hi- thingies meaning 'this, here'.  We are too early to know Grimm's Law and to think of Cisalpine Gaul.

One more leap and we will be through for the time being.

Gothic 10

The last of the Gothic lessons.  If you put them together, see how much we have learned.

Mt 6:12 jah aflet uns yatei skulans sijaima. swaswe jah weis afletam yaim skulam unsaraim.
Mt 6:13 jah ni briggais uns in fraistubnjai. ak lausei uns af yamma ubilin. unte yeina ist yiudangardi. jah mahts jah wulyus in aiwins. amen:

MAT 6:12  And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
MAT 6:13  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

aflet uns 'forgive us'. Junius would know the German Ablass.  This means 'let us off'.

yatei 'that' = yat 'that' + -ei, relativizer.

skulans 'debtors'.  Junius would see that skul- = debt, cf. German Soll und Haben, Schuldner, and the like.

sijaima = this must be the subjunctive of the verb 'to be', since ei requires the subjunctive.  Note again our old friend -ai-, mark of the subjunctive. 'forgive us that we are debtors'.

swaswe = 'just as'

jah weis = we too.  Junius would see the connection of German wir and Gothic weis, since we already noticed that Gothic -s- / -s often agrees with West Germanic (German, English) -r- / -r.

afletam 'forgive' = let off

yaim skulam unsaraim = dat. pl., 'our debtors'. So afleta takes the dative.  This makes the uns above the dative pl. of weis.

ni = not

briggais = 2d sg. subjunctive, used for the imperative.  Note again that -gg- = -ng-, after the Greek fashion.

uns = accusative in this case, probably.

in fraistubnjai = looks like the dative of some funny noun ?? As Junius, we would recognize the connection with Swedish frestelse 'temptation', for example.  We may have even eaten Jansons frestelse, that tempting dish of tempting dishes.

ak = but.

lausei uns = 'loose us'. This is the true imperative.

af yamma ubilin = 'from the evil'.  We are beginning to have a glimmer of the weak endings, seen in attin and ubilin.

unte 'for'

yeina 'thine'. As Greek scholars, we wonder about whether yeina is the neuter plural.

yiudangardi = 'the kingdom'.  We note the seeming looseness in the use of the article.  We also note that Gk. basileia is here translated as yiudangardi, whereas earlier it was yiudinassus. Problems, problems.

jah mahts 'and the power'. We muse on OE miht, German Macht and Gothic mahts.  In fact, since we are looking at the CA, we wonder at the ligature of t and h.

jah wulyus 'and the glory'.  Note wulyus = OE wuldor.  We have memorized nu sculon herigean, so we know wuldorfaedher.  Again the -s = West Germanic -r.

in aiwins, reminds us of Dutch eeuw, as in door alle eeuwen 'throughout the ages'.

Junius would have known that the doxology here was a mark of the Koine. He would know Jerome's words on various types of texts from the Praefatio in librum Paralipomenon and in his letter to the Goths Sunnia and Fretela and would have been happy to see more evidence that this was not introduced by the Protestants.


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