The classification of Roman-Germanic language

THE GOTHIC WRITTEN LANGUAGE AND MONUMENTS

These earliest monuments of the Old Germanc written language, which give us the possibility of speaking on the structure and the vocabulary of the languages, were written in Gothic. The written records of other Old Germanc languages appeared much later, several centuries after. The monuments of the Gothic language reflect the stage in its development when it is still possible to reveal to a certain extent the main peculiarities which characterize Old Germanc languages as a whole. Later on, when written monuments of other Old Germanc languages appeared, these peculiarities had become obliterated or changed considerably, so that only a comparison with Gothic makes it possible to reconstruct the earliest stage in their development or at Least to understand the origin of the phenomenon under review. The early appearance of monuments in Gothic is due to the activities of Ulfilas (in Gothic Wulfila), a Gothic bishop and scholar (311-383). For more than 40 years he labored, first making a Gothic alphabet so that he could translate the Bible and then teaching his people the new faith. This Bible translated by Ulfilas is centuries older than the earliest writing which we have in any other Old Germanc languages, so its historical value is very great. The manuscripts containing the fragments of the biblical translation which have come down to us, are not contemporary with Ulfilas, they were written in the

West Gothic dialect in Italy about the year 500. The monuments are the following:

1. Codex Argenteus, in the University library of Uppsala (Sweden). This codex contained originally on 330- Leaves the four Gospels in the order Matthew, John, Luke and Mark. At present only 187 Leaves are still preserved. The manuscript was written on a purple parchment, the letters were silver and golden. It was first published in 1665.
II. Codex Carolinus. It consists of 4 leaves containing a fragment of the Epistle to the Romans. The manuscript is bilingual; the same text is given in Gothic and in Latin. It was first published in 1762.