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Gothic
Lesson 2
Lesson 2
1. NOUN INFLECTION AND STRONG DECLENSION
Nouns in Gothic are inflected for case, number, and grammatical gender. There are
three grammatical genders: masculine, feminine, neuter. For nouns with clear sexual
gender, the grammatical gender generally agrees with the sexual gender. For example, qēns
“woman” is feminine, so that natural gender and grammatical gender agree; but graba
“ditch” is also feminine, though the referent has no natural gender. There are two numbers:
singular and plural (though personal pronouns and verbs also have a dual number). There
are four cases: nominative (N), accusative (A), genitive (G), dative (D).
Case inflection is essentially a means of marking by suffixes grammatical functions
which would otherwise be signalled by prepositions in Modern English. The most obvious
remnant of the older case system in English is 's (apostrophe-s), which at the end of a noun
fills the same role as the preposition of before a noun. For example, the bark of a dog is the
same as a dog's bark.
Like the other Germanic languages, Gothic has strong and weak nominal declensions.
These are terms originally applied by J. Grimm to distinguish two types of declension within
Germanic languages.
1.1 A-STEMS
The a-stem nouns historically derive from o-stem nouns, respectively, and some
grammars use the historical terminology. These nouns are generally masculine or neuter.
Among a-stem masculine nouns are: dags “da” and hláifs “loaf, bread”. Their declension is
as follows:
Masculine
a-Stem
Stem
daga-
N Sg.
dags
A, V
dag
G
dagis
D
daga
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N Pl.
dagōs
A
dagans
G
dagē
D
dagam
When the nominative singular ends in -s, the -s is lost for the vocative, and so the
vocative and accusative fall together. In the plural, nominative and vocative are the same.
Final -s drops when it immediately follows the combination (short vowel) +
(consonantal r). For example one finds nominative singular waír + s > waír “man”, baúr + s
> baúr “son”, both nouns following the declension of dags. The Nominative is used as the
subject of the sentence.
The forms of the masculine article (which is also a demonstrative pronoun) are

Nominative Singular sa

Nominative Plural thai

the Accusative Singular is thana

the Accusative Plural is thans
Here are some more a-stem masculine nouns:

fisks: fish

fugls: bird

gaits: goat (note that Gothic ai frequently = English o or oa)

hunds: dog (cf. “hound”, “Hund”)

skalks: servant

thiudans: king (cf. Old English “theoden”)

wulfs: wolf
2. STRONG VERB CONJUGATION
Verbs in Gothic, as in the other Germanic languages, fall into two categories: strong
and weak. These terms have no relation to the same names applied to nouns and adjectives.
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There are two tenses in Gothic, present and preterite. As with other Indo-European
languages exhibiting this type of two-tense system, the distinction between preterite and
present is the distinction between past and non-past, since the present forms are used for
both present and future. This is similar to Modern English “I am going on vacation next
week”, where the present tense has future meaning, equivalent to “will go”. Likewise, the
preterite forms subsume the roles of several different tenses in Modern English, such as the
simple past “did”, perfect “has done”, and pluperfect “had done”. There are three moods:
indicative, subjunctive, imperative. There are also two voices in Gothic: active and
(medio)passive.
2.1. STRONG VERB CLASSES
As in English, ablaut, or vowel gradation, characterizes the strong verbs of Gothic.
This system employs vowel alternation within a root to signify change in meaning or
function. Take, for example, the English forms: sing-sang-sung-song. Within the base s-ng,
an i gives present forms, a - past forms, u - the past participle, and o – a derived noun. Other
verbs may follow the same ablaut pattern in full or in part, e.g. ring-rang-rung. Still other
verbs follow an entirely different ablaut pattern, e.g. hold-held-held.
There are seven classes of strong verbs. Six of these are characterized solely by
ablaut. The seventh is characterized by reduplication, or by reduplication coupled with
ablaut.
The Gothic has four principle stems from which all forms of a given verb may be
derived:
1st Principal Stem, from which all forms of the present are derived;
2nd Principal Stem, from which the finite forms of the preterite singular are
derived;
3rd Principal Stem, from which all non-singular finite forms of the preterite are
derived;
4th Principal Stem, from which the preterite participle is derived.
The forms chosen as principal stems are, respectively, (1) the infinitive, (2) the first (or
third) person singular preterite, (3) the first person plural preterite, (4) the nominative
singular masculine preterite participle.
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2.2 PRESENT STEM
We start with the Present Stem:

The infinitive ending of the strong verb is -an

The third person singular ending of the strong Present Indicative is -ith

The third person plural ending of the strong Present Indicative is -and
Here are a few strong verbs:
Class I: Present stem contains -ei
beitan: bite

dreiban: drive (remember b = v)

speiwan: spit (cf. “spew”)

greipan: seize (cf. grip, archaic English “gripe”)

skeinan: shine (sk = English sh)
Class II: Present stem contains -iu
biugan: bend (cf. the related “bow”)

kiusan: test (cf. “choose”)

liugan: lie

siukan: be sick

sliupan: slip
Class III: Present stem contains -in-, -il-, -air
bindan: bind

brinnan: burn

hilpan: help

drigkan: drink

finthan: find (note: -nth- < -nd- in English)

siggwan: sing

sigqan: sink

spinnan: spin

thriskan: thresh (again sk = sh)
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
wairpan: throw (ai = short e)

windan: wind
Class IV: Present stem contains -i-, -ai
bairan: bear, carry (ai = short e)

brikan: break

niman: take

qiman: come

stilan: steal

trudan: tread
Class V: Present stem contains -i-, -ai- (this Class only differs from IV in the past participle)

diwan: die

giban: give (b = v)

itan: eat

ligan: lie down (note this is distinct from liugan “tell a lie”)

mitan: measure (cf. “mete”)

qithan: say (cf. “quoth”)

sitan: sit

saihwan: see (ai = short e)
Class VI: Present stem contains -a
faran: go (cf. “fare”)

skaban: shave (sk = sh, b = v)

standan: stand

swaran: swear

wakan: wake
Class VII: Various

falthan: fold (lth > English ld; cf. nth > nd in finthan)

gaggan: go (cf. Scots “gang”, meaning go, walk)

hahan: hang
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
haldan: hold

letan: let

saian: sow

slepan: sleep

tekan: touch
PRACTICAL ASSIGNMENT
Exercise 1:
Read and Translate the Following Sentences into English:
1. Sa hunds ni beitith.
2. Thai wulfos beitand.
3. Sa thiudans saihwith.
4. Sa skalks ni slepith.
5. Thai fiskos ni itand.
6. Thai fuglos siggwand.
7. Sa fugls jah sa gaits ni spinnand.
The word for “not” is ni. The word for “and” is jah. Noun phrases joined by jah take a
plural verb.
Exercise 2:
Translate the Following Sentences into Gothic:
1. The bird drinks.
2. The king dies.
3. The servants do not lie.
4. The wolves eat.
5. The fish does not bite.
6. The dogs do not seize.
7. The king and the servant drink.
Now let’s try to say something like “the dogs bite the wolf” and have more than one kind of
thing involved. To do that, we need the Accusative case, to mark the direct object of the
verb.
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Here are some more masculine a-stems that can be used as direct objects:

aiths: oath (ai = oa)

asts: twig

bagms: tree (cf. German Baum, English “beam” (of wood))

laufs: leaf (Gothic au frequently = English ea)

maithms: gift

stains: stone (ai=o)

winds: wind
Exercise 3:
Read and Translate the Following Sentences into English:
1. Thai hundos beitand thana wulf.
2. Sa wulfs itith thans gaitans.
3. Sa thiudans gibith maithm.
4. Thai skalkos brikand thans stainans.
5. Thai fuglos ni saihwand thana wind.
6. Sa skalks ni swarith aithans.
7. Sa thiudans jah sa skalks itand thans fiskans.
Exercise 4:
Translate the Following Sentences into Gothic:
1. The servant carries the goat.
2. The birds break the branches.
3. The king swears an oath.
4. The wolves do not see birds.
5. The goat eats leaves.
6. Birds, wolves, and goats do not spin.
7. The servants give gifts.
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