Gothic declension

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Gothic is an inflected language, and as such its nouns, pronouns, and adjectives must be declined in order to serve a grammatical function. A set of declined forms of the same word pattern is called a declension. There are five grammatical cases in Gothic with a few traces of an old sixth instrumental case.

Contents

[edit] Grammatical cases

A complete declension consists of five grammatical cases.

[edit] Description of cases

  • The nominative case, which is used to express the subject of a statement. It is also used with copulative verbs.
  • The vocative case, which is used to address someone or something in direct speech. This case is indicated in English by intonation or punctuation, e.g. "Mary is going to the store" ("Mary" is nominative) compared to "Mary, are you going to the store?" or "Mary!" ("Mary" is vocative).
  • The accusative case, which expresses the direct object of a verb. In English, except for a small number of words which display a distinct accusative case (e.g., who > whom, I > me, he > him), the accusative and nominative cases are identical.
  • The genitive case, which expresses possession, measurement, or source. In English, the genitive case is represented analytically by the preposition of or by the enclitic "–'s", which itself developed from the genitive case. This –'s is related to the common Gothic "-s".
  • The dative case, which expresses the recipient of an action, the indirect object of a verb. In English, the prepositions to, from and for most commonly denote this case analytically.
  • The instrumental case, which is used to express the place in or on which, or the time at which, an action is performed. The instrumental case only survives in a few preposition forms in Gothic.

[edit] Order of cases

Gothic language grammars usually borrow the common Latin grammar order NOM-GEN-DAT-ACC-VOC removing the unrepresented cases ablative and locative.

[edit] Strong declensions

[edit] The a declension

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This declension counterparts the second declension (us/um) of Latin, and the omicron declension (os/on) of Greek. It contains masculine and neuter nouns.

dags, –os
day m.		 waurd, –a
word n.
Singular Plural Singular Plural
Nominative dags –s dagos –os waurd – waurda –a
Genitive dagis –is dage –e waurdis –is waurde –e
Dative daga –a dagam –am waurda –a waurdam –am
Accusative dag – dagans –ans waurd – waurda –a
Vocative dag –

[edit] The o declension

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This declension counterparts the first declension (a) of Latin, and the alpha declension (a/as) of Greek. It contains feminine nouns.

giba, –os
gift f.
Singular Plural
Nominative giba –a gibos –os
Genitive gibos –os gibo –o
Dative gibai –ai gibom –om
Accusative giba –a giba –a

[edit] The i declension

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This declension counterparts the vowel stems of the third declension (is) of Latin, and the third declension of Greek. It contains masculine and feminine nouns.

gastis, –eis
stranger, guest m.		 qens, –eis
wife f.
Singular Plural Singular Plural
Nominative gastis –is gasteis –eis qens –s qeneis –eis
Genitive gastis –is gaste –e qenais –ais qene –e
Dative gasta –a gastim –im qenai –ai qenim –im
Accusative gast – gastins –ins qen – qenins –ins
Vocative gast –

[edit] The u declension

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This declension counterparts the fourth declension (us) of Latin. It contains nouns of all genders. Both neutra, faihu "property" and qairu "thorn", in this declension lack plural. Feminines inflect as masculines.

sunus, –jus
son m.		 faihu
property n.
Singular Plural Singular
Nominative sunus –us sunjus –jus faihu –u
Genitive sunaus –aus suniwe –iwe faihaus –aus
Dative sunau –au sunum –um faihau –au
Accusative sunu –u sununs –uns faihu –u
Vocative sunu –u

[edit] The weak declension, n stems

The an, on and in declensions constitute a Germanic word derivation, which is also used for adjectives in the weak form marking definiteness. The declensions are unique for Germanic languages, and so have no counterparts in Latin or Greek.

[edit] The an declension

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Masculines and neuters belong to this declension.

guma, –ns
man m.		 hairto, –na
heart n.
Singular Plural Singular Plural
Nominative guma –a gumans –ans hairto –o hairtona –ona
Genitive gumins –ins gumane –ane hairtins –ins hairtane –ane
Dative gumin –in gumam –am hairtin –in hairtam –am
Accusative guman –an gumans –ans hairto –o hairtona –ona

[edit] The on declension

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This declension is the feminine counterpart of the an declension.

tuggo ¹, –ns
tongue f.
Singular Plural
Nominative tuggo –o tuggons –ons
Genitive tuggons –ons tuggono –ono
Dative tuggon –on tuggom –om
Accusative tuggon –on tuggons –ons

¹: the first g in tuggo is pronounced [ŋ], the Gothic language borrowed the practice to denote [ŋ] by g from Koine Greek in which the New Testament was originally written.

[edit] The in declension

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This declension contains abstract feminines only.

frodei, –ns
wisdom f.
Singular Plural
Nominative frodei –ei frodeins –eins
Genitive frodeins –eins frodeino –eino
Dative frodein –ein frodeim –eim
Accusative frodein –ein frodeins –eins

[edit] Minor declensions

[edit] The r declension

A few family nouns inherited from Proto-Indo-European have a very archaic declension. Feminines and masculines have identical forms.

swistar, –rjus
sister f.
Singular Plural
Nominative swistar –ar swistrjus –rjus
Genitive swistrs –rs swistre –re
Dative swistr –r swistrum –rum
Accusative swistar –ar swistruns –runs

Inflected thus are also broþar m., brother, fadar m., father, daúhtar f., daughter,

[edit] The root nouns

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[edit] References

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[edit] See also