Eastern Germanic, Western Germanic and Northern Germanic groups of languages as Germanic

Lecture 2

The East Germanic subgroup was formed by the tribes who returned from Scandinavia at the beginning of our era. The most numerous and powerful of them were the Goths. They were among the first Teutons to leave the coast of the Baltic Sea and start on their great migrations. The Gothic language, now dead, has been preserved in written records of the 4th – 6th c. The Goths were the first of the Teutons to become Christian. In the 4th c. Ulfilas, a West Gothic bishop, made a translation of the Gospel from Greek into Gothic using a modified form of the Greek alphabet. Parts of Ulfilas’ Gospels – a manuscript of about two hundred pages have been preserved and are kept now in Sweden. It is written on red parchment with silver and golden letters and is known as the Silver Codex. It is one of the earliest texts in the languages of the Germanic group; it represents a form of language very close to PG and therefore throws light on the pre-written stages of history of all the languages of the Germanic group, including English. The other East Germanic languages, all of which are now dead, have left no written traces. Some of their tribal names have survived in place-names, which reveal the directions of their migrations. Bornholm and Burgundy go back to the East Germanic tribe of Burgundians; Andalusia is derived from the tribal name Vandals.