INTRODUCTION

§ 1. Gothic forms one member of the Germanic (Teutonic) branch of the Indo-Germanic family of languages. This great family of languages is usually divided into eight branches:—

I. Aryan, consisting of: (1) The Indian group, including the language of the Vedas, classical Sanskrit, and the Prākrit dialects; (2) The Iranian group, including (a) West Iranian (Old Persian, the language of the Persian cuneiform inscriptions, dating from about 520–350 b. c.); (b) East Iranian (Avesta—sometimes called Zend-Avesta, Zend, and Old Bactrian—the language of the Avesta, the sacred books of the Zoroastrians).

II. Armenian, the oldest monuments of which belong to the fifth century a. d.

III. Greek, with its numerous dialects.

IV. Albanian, the language of ancient Illyria. The oldest monuments belong to the seventeenth century.

V. Italic, consisting of Latin and the Umbrian-Samnitic dialects. From the popular form of Latin are descended the Romance languages: Portuguese, Spanish, Catalanian, Provençal, French, Italian, Raetoromanic, Roumanian or Wallachian.

VI. Keltic, consisting of: (1) Gaulish (known to us by Keltic names and words quoted by Latin and Greek authors, and inscriptions on coins); (2) Britannic, including Cymric or Welsh, Cornish, and Bas-Breton or Armorican (the oldest records of Cymric and Bas-Breton date back to the eighth or ninth century); (3) Gaelic, including Irish-Gaelic, Scotch-Gaelic, and Manx. The oldest monuments are the 2 old Gaelic ogam inscriptions, which probably date as far back as about 500 a. d.

VII. Baltic-Slavonic, consisting of: (1) The Baltic division, embracing (a) Old Prussian, which became extinct in the seventeenth century, (b) Lithuanian, (c) Lettic (the oldest records of Lithuanian and Lettic belong to the sixteenth century); (2) the Slavonic division, embracing: (a) the South-Eastern group, including Russian (Great Russian, White Russian, and Little Russian), Bulgarian, and Illyrian (Servian, Croatian, Slovenian); (b) the Western group, including Czech (Bohemian), Sorabian (Wendish), Polish and Polabian.

VIII. Germanic, consisting of:—

(1) Gothic. Almost the only source of our knowledge of the Gothic language is the fragments of the biblical translation made in the fourth century by Ulfilas, the Bishop of the West Goths. See pp. 195–7.

(2) Scandinavian or North Germanic—called Old Norse until about the middle of the eleventh century—which is sub-divided into two groups: (a) East Scandinavian, including Swedish, Gutnish, and Danish; (b) West Scandinavian, including Norwegian, and Icelandic.

The oldest records of this branch are the runic inscriptions, some of which date as far back as the third or fourth century.

(3) West Germanic, which is composed of:—

(a) High German, the oldest monuments of which belong to about the middle of the eighth century.

(b) Low Franconian, called Old Low Franconian or Old Dutch until about 1200.

(c) Low German, with records dating back to the ninth century. Up to about 1200 it is generally called Old Saxon.

(d) Frisian, the oldest records of which belong to the fourteenth century.

(e) English, the oldest records of which belong to about the end of the seventh century.