Topic 8

East Germanic languages

1. East Germanic tribes: Visigoths and Ostrogoths

2. Peculiarities of the East Germanic subgroup

3. Gothic and Germanic

Key-words: Visigoths (Toulouse), Ostrogoths (Ravenna), Gothic, Arian, Theodoric the Great, Wulfila, Holtzmann’s law.

Questions and tasks:

1. Give a short survey of historical background of Gothic evolution (the history of Ostrogoths & Visigoths). Can there be any historical explanation of the Gothic language death?

2. Dwell on the specificity of Holzmann’s law in East Germanic languages.

3. Enumerate the phonetic and morphological phenomena lacking in Gothic and other Germanic languages of East subgroup. Give you account on the possible reasons of East Germanic specific features evolution differentiating them from West and North Germanic subgroups.

4. Find in the Gothic glossary (see Zhluktenko, Yavorska 1986) words cognate with other Germanic languages (not less than 10 items); with Slavonic languages (10).

Topic 9