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LESSON 5

Endings of strong feminine nouns

The feminine definite article and demonstrative pronoun: so

Example: so razda the language

Some strong feminine nouns:

• so ahwa: the river (cf. Latin aqua "water")
• so airtha: the earth
• so boka: the letter (of the alphabet) (cf. English "book")
• thos bokos: the letters; also the book or the letter (sent from one person to another, epistle)
• so bota: the advantage (cf. archaic English "boot")
• so fijathwa: the hatred (cf. fi-end, originally meaning enemy)
• so frijathwa: the love (cf. fri-end)
• so giba: the gift
• so graba: the ditch (cf. "grave")
• so hairda: the herd
• so halja: the hell
• so hweila: the time (cf. "while")
• so kara: the care
• so karkara: the prison (from Latin; cf. in-carcer-ate)
• so mulda: the dust (cf. "mould")
• so nethla: the needle
• so runa: the mystery (cf. "rune")
• so saiwala: the soul
• so saurga: the sorrow
• so sibja: the (family) relationship (cf. sib-ling; the name of the Norse goddess Sif is also cognate)
• so stibna: the voice (cf. archaic English "steven", Old English stefn)
• so sunja: the truth (this word is, strangely enough, cognate to English "sin"; but in origin it is related to ist, sijum and sind, and means "that which is")
• so thiuda: the people (Old English theod; German deut-sch would be in Gothic *thiud-isks "popular, national, 'vulgar'"; the name-element Diet- is also equivalent, e.g. in Dietrich = Thiudareiks, Dietmar = Thiudamers)
• so triggwa: the covenant (cf. English true, troth); here -ggw- is pronounced as it is spelled, not *tringwa
• so wamba: the womb

The feminine personal pronoun

si she (cf. German sie)

Weak feminine nouns:

Weak feminine nouns ending in -o:

These are very close to the forms of the masculine, and can in fact be derived from them by substituting o for a, i, or e in the endings of the masculine (this results in the confusion of the accusative and dative singular in -on, which are distinguished in the masculine as -an, -in).

Weak feminine nouns ending in -ei

These are the same as the weak feminines ending in -o, but substitute EI for O everywhere except in the last vowel of the genitive plural.

Examples: so stairno the star, and so aithei the mother

Some weak feminine nouns:

• so aithei: the mother
• so azgo: the ash (cinders, not the tree): azg- > ask- > ash
• so baitrei: the bitterness (cf. the adjective baitrs "bitter")
• so balthei: the boldness (<*balths "bold")
• so bairhtei: the brightness (cf. bairhts "bright")
• so brinno: the fever (cf. brinnan "to burn")
• so brunjo: the breastplate (cf. "byrnie")
• so diupei: the depth
• so gatwo: the street (cf. German Gasse)
• so hauhhairtei: the pride ("high-heartedness")
• so kalbo: the calf
• so managei: the multitude ("manyness")
• so marei: the sea
• so mawilo: the young maiden
• so mikilei: the greatness
• so qino: the woman
• so stairno: the star
• so swaihro: the mother-in-law
• so thaurstei: the thirst
• so theihwo: the thunder
• so tuggo: the tongue

Feminine strong adjective endings

As with the masculines and neuters, the adjective and pronominal endings are evidently related; but note that the -z- element does not occur in the dative singular of the strong adjective, despite thizai, izai in the demonstrative and personal pronouns. The weak feminine adjective declines just like stairno. With the example gutiska razda "Gothic language":

Preterite-Presents

Preterite Present verbs are verbs in which (for complicated reasons involving a very early restructuring of the Proto-Indo-European verbal system) the present tense looks exactly like the preterite of a strong verb. Some of these are "modal" verbs used with an infinitive. For example, from the verb magan "to be able":

e.g., ik mag saihwan thana menan "I can see the moon.", or skulun "to owe, to be obliged to, to be about to; used to indicate obligation, but sometimes also futurity, like English "shall", "should")

Thu skalt gaggan du fraujin meinamma "you shall (you ought to) go to my lord"

aihan "to have" (g and h are found interchangeably in many of these forms)

thaurban "to need" (cf. sa tharba "the beggar") (this verb takes an object in the genitive case; you can remember this by thinking of English "to have need of", but it is usually better translated "to need")

kunnan "to know":

witan "to know" (cf. English wit, wot)

A few more verbs:

• driusan, draus, drusun: fall
• filhan, falh, fulhun: hide
• galeithan, galaith, galithun: go
• hwairban, hwarf, hwaurbun: walk (u > au and i > ai before r)
• swiltan, swalt, swultun: die
• tiuhan, tauh, tauhun: lead (u > au before h)
• thliuhan, thlauh, thlauhun: flee (u > au before h)
• urreisan, urrais, urrisun: arise
• weihan, waih, waihun: fight (i > ai before h)
• winnan, wann, wunnun: suffer

And an adjective: silubreins (you can figure it out!)

Sentences:

1. Aithei meina gaf mis bokos seinos.
2. So mawilo draif tho hairda du thizai ahwai.
3. Sa thiudans aih brunjons gultheinos jah hilm silubreinana.
4. Ijos skulun qithan du thaim qinom.
5. Ni kunnuth tho diupein thizos mareins.
6. Si wait tho saurga jah tho kara in saiwalai seinai.
7. Alareiks ist thiudans thizos mikilaizos thiudos thize Gutane.
8. Thiuda meina qam du mis jah qath, "thos stairnons driusand af himinam, jah thata land sigqith in marein!"
9. Frauja theins qath, "Allai bandjans skulun winnan in karkarai."
10. Thos kalbons swultun in thaim grabam fram thaurstein.
11. Sa gudja kann tho runa thizo boko.

(Answers to this exercise.)

1. I can say many words in the Gothic language.
2. I know the mysteries of the soul.
3. The women hid the treasures in the ditch.
4. The maiden arose and went to her mother and said, "I give you a gift."
5. She has much grain for the calves.
6. On that day I suffered much care and sorrow, and I fled to her house.
7. They led the calves and the goats to the river, but they did not drink.
8. We walked on the street with the women.
9. Because of (fram) her pride, she cannot know love.
10. Their voices are in my ears.
11. Men and women on earth need love and truth in their hearts.

(Answers to this exercise.)

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