Hostname: page-component-74656f9884-2dmjx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-08T08:07:54.440Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Gothic and Germanic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2026

Joseph B. Voyles
Joseph B. Voyles*
Affiliation:
University of Washington
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In §1, a reconsideration of the orthographic evidence for Gothic yields a synchronic distinctive-feature analysis of its phonology. In §2, a general procedure is proposed for determining a Stammbaum, by positing that tree which assumes the fewest rules of sound change from the proto-language to the dialects. In considering the diachronic rules of early Germanic, North and West Germanic are shown to share more rules than do North Germanic and Gothic. Hence the optimal tree must split first into a North-West Germanic branch and an East Germanic one. Available non-linguistic evidence (§3) supports this view.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 44 , Issue 4 , December 1968 , pp. 720 - 746
Copyright
Copyright © 1968 by Linguistic Society of America

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Antonsen, Elmer H. 1967. Proto-Scandinavian and Common Nordic. Scandinavian Studies 39.16–39.Google Scholar
Bennett, William H. 1949. The monophthongization of Gothic ái áu. Lg. 25.15–21.Google Scholar
Bennett, William H. 1950. The Germanic development of Indo-European ē. Lg. 26.232–235.Google Scholar
Bennett, William H. 1964. Gothic spellings and phonemes: some current interpretations. Taylor Starck Festschrift, 19–27. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Braune, Wilhelm. 1884. Gotisches ddj and Altnordisches ggj. Beiträge zur Geschichte der Deutschen Sprache und Literatur 9.545–548.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braune, Wilhelm, and Ebbinghaus, E. A.. 1961. Gotische Grammatik. 16th ed. Tübingen: Niemeyer.Google Scholar
Campbell, A. 1959. Old English grammar. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cathey, James E. 1967. A relative chronology of Old Icelandic phonology based on distinctive feature analysis. Seattle: University of Washington dissertation.Google Scholar
Chomsky, Noam. 1966. Topics in the theory of generative grammar. Current trends in linguistics, III, ed. by Sebeok, T. A., 1–60. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Cohen, Marcel. 1958. La grande invention de l'écriture. 2 vols. Paris: Klincksieck.Google Scholar
Diringer, David. 1953. The alphabet. 2d ed. New York: Philosophical Library.Google Scholar
Ebbinghaus, Ernst A. 1960. Gotisch iu. Journal of English and Germanic Philology 59.597–599.Google Scholar
Halle, Morris. 1964. Phonology in generative grammar. The structure of language, ed. by Fodor, Jerry A. and Katz, Jerrold J., 324–334. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Hamp, Eric P. 1958. Gothic ai and au again. Lg. 34.359–363.Google Scholar
Hirt, Hermann. 1931. Handbuch des Urgermanischen, I: Laut- und Akzentlehre. Heidelberg: Winter.Google Scholar
Isenberg, Horst. 1965. Diachronische Syntax und die logische Struktur einer Theorie des Sprachwandels. Studia Grammatica V: Syntaktische Studien, 133–168. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag.Google Scholar
Jellinek, Max Hermann. 1926. Geschichte der gotischen Sprache. (Grundriss der Germanischen Philologie, 1/1). Berlin und Leipzig: de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, Oscar F. 1958. Gothic iu. Lg. 34.353–358.Google Scholar
Jones, Oscar F. 1963. The Wulfilian j symbol and its implications. Word 19.182–193.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kieckers, Ernst. 1928. Handbuch der vergleichenden gotischen Grammatik. München: Hueber.Google Scholar
Krahe, Hans. 1960. Germanische Sprachwissenschaft, I: Einleitung und Lautlehre. Berlin: de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Kroeber, A. L. 1913. The determination of linguistic relationship. Anthropos 8.389–401.Google Scholar
Kuhn, Hans. 1944. Review of Nordgermanen und Alemannen, by Maurer, Friedrich. Anzeiger für Deutsches Altertum 63.5–13.Google Scholar
Kuhn, Hans. 1955. Zur Gliederung der germanischen Sprachen. Zeitschrift für Deutsches Altertum und Deutsche Literatur 86.1–47.Google Scholar
Lehmann, Winfred P. 1966. The grouping of the Germanic languages. Ancient Indo-European dialects, ed. by Birnbaum, Henrik and Puhvel, Jaan, 13–27. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moulton, William G. 1948. The phonemes of Gothic. Lg. 24.76–87.Google Scholar
Moulton, William G. 1954. The stops and spirants of Early Germanic. Lg. 30.1–42.Google Scholar
Nordmeyer, George. 1935. Gothic initial þl-. Lg. 11.216–220.Google Scholar
Noreen, Adolf. 1903. Altisländische und altnorwegische Grammatik. 3d ed. Halle: Niemeyer.Google Scholar
Oxenstierna, Eric C. G. 1945. Die Urheimat der Goten. Leipzig: J. A. Barth.Google Scholar
Schwyzer, E. 1907. Nhd. Rahm: Jgav. raoγna-. Indogermanische Forschungen 21.180–182.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sievers, Eduard, and Brunner, Karl. 1951. Altenglische Grammatik. 2d ed. Halle/Saale: Niemeyer.Google Scholar
Sverdrup, Jakob. 1915. Über die Lautverbindung xs in Germanischen, besonders im Altnordischen. Indogermanische Forschungen 35.149–164.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Voyles, Joseph B. 1967. Simplicity, ordered rules, and the First Sound Shift. Lg. 43.636–661.Google Scholar
Whitney, William Dwight. 1892. Language and the study of language. 5th ed. New York: Scribner's.Google Scholar