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Unit 10
Although the definite article functions as the usual demonstrative pronoun, there is attested a pronoun whose stem is hi-, as und hina
dag (to this day), himma daga (in this day), fram himma (henceforth), und hita nu (until now).
No other forms of this pronoun are attested, although a complete declension has been reconstructed; it appears in the lexicon on this site as his.
There is a compound demonstrative pronoun, formed from sa, sō, þata by appending -uh. The nom. sing. forms are sah, sōh, þatuh; all
others change final -a to -uh; final -s to -zuh; and any other vowel simply appends -h.
In addition to the genitives of the personal pronouns, there are also posessive pronouns: meins, meina, mein(ata) (my); þeins, þeina,
þein(ata) (thy); seins, seina, sein(ata) (his/her). These appear to be declined like most adjectives (see mikils). Also attested is
unsar, masc. acc. unsarana, fem. nom. acc. unsara. The neuter nom. acc. of unsar does not occur with the -ata ending.
Only when referring to the subject of the sentence do forms of seins occur. Any other time, one of the genitive pronouns
is, ize, izos, izo,
is used.
The corpus of Gothic texts frequently uses posessive pronouns with the definite article, a construction reminiscent of, and perhaps influenced by, Greek,
for example so armahaírtiþa þeina, literally "the mercy [of] thine", as the translation for
σοῦ ἡ ἐλεημοσύνη.
Class II weak verbs are distinctive in having their infinitive in -ōn instead of -an. Otherwise, the consonants of the present tense
are the same as in strong verbs:
| ik salbō | I anoint |
| þū salbōs | thou anoint |
| is/si /ita salbōþ | he/she/it anoints |
| wit salbōs | we two anoint |
| jut salbōts | you two anoint |
| weis salbōm | we anoint |
| jus salbōþ | you (pl) anoint |
| eis/ijōs/ija salbōnd | they anoint |
The preterite forms are salbōda, salbōdēs, salbōda; salbōdēdu, etc.
Quite a few verbs belong to this conjugation:
| áihtrōn | to beg for |
| áirinōn | to be messenger |
| awiliudōn +dat | to thank |
| dwalimōn | to be foolish, mad |
| faginōn | to rejoice |
| fiskōn | to fish |
| fráujinōn | to be ruler |
| frijōn | to love |
| ga-leikōn | to liken |
| gáunōn | to lament |
| ga-weisōn | to visit |
| hatizōn | to hate |
| hōlōn | to treat violently |
| ƕarbōn | to go about |
| idreigōn | to repent |
| karōn | to care for |
| káupōn | to traffic |
| laþōn | to invite |
| lustōn | to desire |
| mitōn | to consider |
| reikinōn | to rule |
| sidōn | to practice |
| skalkinōn | to serve |
| spillōn | to narrate, tell |
| sunjōn | to justify |
| swiglōn | to pipe |
| ufar-munnōn | to forget |
and several more.
Imperatives are formed differently in strong vs. weak verbs. Strong verbs such as qiþan form the 2nd person singular imperative from
the plain stem: qiþ (say!). If the final consonant is voiced, it becomes devoiced: liuþ (grow!) from liudan. For weak verbs, the 2nd
sing. imper. is formed like so: sōkei (seek!) from sōkjan and salbō (anoint!) from salbōn.
The imperative of wisan is regular for a strong verb.
These and other persons and numbers of imperatives for these verbs are as follows:
| | Weak | Strong |
| | sōkjan | | salbōn | qiþan | liudan | wisan |
| Sing. |
| 2nd | sōkei | seek thou | salbō | qiþ | liuþ | wis |
| 3rd | sōkjadáu | may s/he seek | salbōdau | qiþadáu | liudadáu | wisadáu |
| Dual |
| 2nd | sōkjats | seek ye two | salbōts | qiþats | liudats | wisats |
| Pl. |
| 1st | sōkjam | let's seek | salbōm | qiþam | liudam | wisam |
| 2nd | sōkeiþ | seek ye | salbōþ | qiþiþ | liudiþ | wisiþ |
| 3rd | sōkjandáu | may they seek | salbōndáu | qiþandáu | liudandáu | wisandáu |
By appending -uh to the forms of ƕas, ƕō, ƕa, and the forms of ƕarjis, with some sound changes, the indefinite pronouns
ƕazuh (ƕōh, ƕah),
ƕarjizuh (ƕarjōh, ƕarjatōh),
and áinƕarjizuh (áinƕarjōh, áinƕarjatōh)
are formed. Both mean each, every. There is also ƕaþaruh (each of two; both), but this is only attested
in the masculine dative form ƕaþarammēh and its compound áinƕaþarammēh.
Ƕazuh has ƕanōh for masc. acc. and ƕammēh for dat. masc. and neut. but otherwise resembles ƕas
in all genders with the following changes: Final vowels append -h and final consonants append -uh; final s is voiced
to z. Ƕarjizuh similarly resembles ƕarjis + -h, -uh, s->z but with masc. acc.
ƕarjanōh; neut. nom. acc. ƕarjatōh; masc. neut. dat. ƕarjammēh.
The sound changes for appending -uh to pronouns are are evident in the following declension table:
| Masc. |
| Nom. | ƕazuh | ƕarjizuh | ƕaþaruh |
| Acc. | ƕanuh (irregular) | ƕarjanōh |
ƕaþaranōh |
| Gen. | ƕizuh | ƕarjizuh | ƕaþarizuh |
| Dat. | ƕammēh | ƕarjammēh | ƕaþarammēh |
| Fem. |
| Nom. | ƕōh | ƕarjōh | ƕaþarōh |
| Acc. | ƕōh | ƕarjōh | ƕaþarōh |
| Gen. | ƕizōzuh | ƕarjáizōzuh |
ƕaþaráizōzuh |
| Dat. | ƕizáih | ƕarjáih | ƕaþaráih |
| Neu. |
| Nom. | ƕah | ƕarjatōh | ƕaþaratōh |
| Acc. | ƕah | ƕarjatōh | ƕaþaratōh |
| Gen. | ƕizuh | ƕarjizuh | ƕaþarizuh |
| Dat. | ƕammēh | ƕarjammēh | ƕaþarammēh |
Note the irregular form ƕanuh. It is attested twice, however the expected ƕanōh is attested once.
Also attested is acc. pl. ƕanzuh for the same pronoun.
The combinations ƕazuh saei, saƕazuh saei, saƕazuh izei, þisƕazuh saei all mean "whosoever".
The neuter equivalent þataƕah þei means "whatsoever".
In the neuter N.V.A., þisƕaduh þadei is attested as an adverb meaning "whithersoever".
Another indefinite pronoun is sums (some), declined like mikils. When used in the construction sums... sums..., it means "the one...
while the other..." comparing two parallel clauses in a manner equivalent to Greek 'ο μέν... 'ο δέ. When used in this way, sums
usually has -uh added to its second occurence, and sometimes to both: (nom. pl.) sumái(h)... sumáih... (some... and others...).
In many instances the -h assimilates to -þ due to a following þan. The attested forms of sums + -uh are:
| Singular |
| Acc. | sumana... sumanuh |
| Dat. | sumamma... sumammuh |
| Plural |
| Nom. | sumái... sumáih /sumáiþ-þan |
| Acc. | sumans... sumanzuh, sumanzuþ-þan, sumansuþ-þan |
| Gen. | sumáizē... sumáizēh |
| Dat. | sumáim... sumáimuþ-þan |
Indefinite pronouns used for negation are built from ƕas, áins, or manna plus the clitic -hun, and always occur with ni to mean
"no one". Mannahun is always masculine and declines as mannahun, mannanhun, manshun, mannahun. (More on this declension in the next unit.) Ƕashun
is only attested in the masc. nom.: ni ƕashun. Ni áinshun (no one, nothing) is declined as:
| Masc. |
| Nom. | ni áinshun |
| Acc. | ni áin(n)ōhun |
| Gen. | ni áinishun |
| Dat. | ni áinummēhun |
| Fem. |
| Nom.Acc. | ni áinōhun |
| Gen. | ni áináizōshun |
| Dat. | ni áináihun |
| Neut. |
| Nom.Acc. | ni áinhun |
| Gen. | ni áinishun |
| Dat. | ni áinummēhun |
Besides forming the direct object of the majority of transitive verbs, the accusative has a few other uses:
- To complement a verb with a parallel in meaning, as in: háifstjan gōda háifst, to fight a good fight; ōgan sis agis mikil, to fear a
great fear; waúrkja waúrstwa, I work works.
- Rarely in Gothic a phrase such as gabundans handuns (bound as to hands) occurs. (Gabundans is a participle, covered in
unit 14; the declension of handus is
covered in the next unit.)
- The accusative governs the length of time and spatial extent of an action: gaggan dagis wig = to go a day's journey.
- Impersonal verbs concerning hunger and thirst take an accusative of the person: ina huggreiþ (he is hungry). The idiom kar(a) ist
(it concerns, lit. there is a care) takes accusative of the person who is caring and genitive of that which is cared of: kar-ist ija
fadreináis izōs (she cares about her family).
- Láisjan (to teach) takes an accusative of the student and another of whatever is being taught.
If used reflexively, e.g. láisjan sik, it means "to learn".
- The verbs táujan (to make), waúrkjan (to work), briggan (to bring) with two accusatives convey the sense of making the one direct
object into the other; similarly, a number of other verbs of knowing, judging, finding, counting, etc. are known with two accusatives
and a semantic pattern similar to "to consider X to be Y".
The verb awiliudōn has uses involving various prepositions and conjugations.
The entity being thanked, if specified, goes in the dative, and follows the verb, although there are two occurrences of
guda awiliuþ ("thanks be unto god") in which the latter word is actually a noun and wisadáu is implied.
To thank someone for something attributed to them, it is common to use untē or fram +dat.
To be thankful for a condition or situation, ei, ƕáiwa, and in +dat are all attested.
To thank on behalf of someone, in +gen occurs in multiple places and faúr uns occurs once.
Some examples include:
| Awiliudō þus untē mik halft. | Thank you for helping me. (lit. I give thanks to you since you helped me) |
| Awiliudō þus fram alláim dēdim þōzei tawidēs faúr mik. | Thank you for all you've done for me. |
| In allamma awiliudōþ. | In all things give thanks. (2nd person plural imperative.) |
| Awiliudōm imma in izwara. | We will thank him for you. |
| Awiliudō sēlein ei mag mik láisjan Gutrazda. | Thank goodness I can learn Gothic. (sēlein = dat. singular; see the next lesson for feminine -ei nouns.) |
| Awiliudō þū izái faúr uns. | Give her our thanks (lit. give thanks to her for us; 2nd singular imperative). |
| 1. Hláif unsarana þana sinteinan gif uns himma daga. | Give us this day our daily bread. |
| 2. Láisei ins managa sildaleika. | Teach them many wonderful things. |
| 3. Laþoþ ugkis du razna is du itan. | He is inviting us two over to his house to eat. |
| 4. Ƕazuh saei þūk ananáuþeiþ rasta áina, gagg miþ imma twōs. | Whosoever compels you to go a mile, go with him two. |
| 5. Is was gabundans handuns jah fōtuns, ak faginōda sunsei ina laílōtun gaggan. | He was bound as to hands and feet, but he rejoiced when they let him go. |
Translate these from Gothic:
| 6. Gawaúrkeiþ jus waúrstwa skáuna. |
| 7. Ni kar ist ina þizē lambē. |
| 8. Láisei þuk Gutrazda jah fraþjis waúrda meina. |
| 9. Þanzei gaft mis, ni fraláus izē áinummēhun. (Note: þanzei = þans + ei.) |
| 10. Sumáim snáiws ist andanēms, sumáimuh ist ufar kalds. |
Answers
| 6. Work ye beautiful works.
(Note that skáun waúrstw also means "artwork", so this can also be translated as "Make ye artworks.") |
| 7. He cares not for the sheep. |
| 8. Learn Gothic and you'll understand my words. |
| 9. The ones you gave me, I have not lost any of them. |
| 10. For some, snow is pleasant; for others, it is too cold. |
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