This section of my website is an introduction to the extinct Gothic languge for all who are interested. As someone who has always been fascinated with both linguistics and ancient cultures, Gothic appeals to me not only as a glimpse into speech from the distant past, but also a tongue that manages to equally resemble both English and the highly inflected languages contemporary to the Goths.

My main source for this project has been Joseph Wright's Grammar of the Gothic Language, because Wright's work is widely considered one of the primary authorities on Gothic, and also because fortunately it is readily available. Grammatical textbooks generally tend to be a rather dry read, and I wanted something that is more easily approachable for the layperson; Omniglot links to a number of resources, and there used to be a nice introduction by one David Salo, but it doesn't seem to ever have been finished.

So I present to you, the reader, this distillation of grammar for this beautiful classic language, in hopes that you'll find it valuable, whether you may be new to language learning or a professional linguist, or anywhere in between.

~ Hrabnaskufta

The author.
Photo courtesy Deborah Berman-Montaño.