Alphabet and pronunciation
The Gothic alphabet was created by bishop Wulfila in the 4th century for his translation of the Bible into the Gothic language. It is primarily based on uncial Greek, with borrowings from the Runic and Latin alphabets. The names are native Runic names applied to these Greek letters. Just like in the Greek alphabet, each Gothic letter is assigned a numerical value, and numbers were written with letters in between raised dots (e.g. •ib•=12) or under a long line. These numbers only go up to 999, and this system will not be used in this course. However, there are two letters that have no phonetic value, and are only used as numbers. This course will also use a transliteration instead of the original Gothic letters, as most computers can't show them correctly.
The content of the following table is based on Wikipedia's Gothic alphabet article and Gothic for Goths' Pronunciation page.
| Letter | Transliteration | IPA | Name | Numeral |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
a, ā (long) | [a, a:] | ansus (god, cf. Norse áss) | 1 |
 |
b | [b, β]1 | baírka (birch) | 2 |
 |
g | [g, ɣ, x]1 | giba (gift) | 3 |
 |
d | [d, ð]1 | dags (day) | 4 |
 |
ē (always long) | [e:] | aíƕs (horse) or eiws (yew) | 5 |
 |
q | [kʷ] | qaírþrō (apple tree)2 | 6 |
 |
z | [z] | (unknown)3 | 7 |
 |
h | [h~x] | hagls (hail) | 8 |
 |
þ | [θ] | þiuþ (good) | 9 |
 |
i, ï4 | [ɪ, i] | eis (ice) | 10 |
 |
k | [k] | kusma (unknown) | 20 |
 |
l | [l] | lagus (sea, lake) | 30 |
 |
m | [m] | manna (man) | 40 |
 |
n | [n] | náuþs (need) | 50 |
 |
j | [j] | jēr (year) | 9 |
|
þ | [θ] | þiuþ (good) | 9 |