Lesson 1: Alphabet and Pronunciation
This is the first lesson of the Gothic course, which will give you what you need to know in order to learn the Gothic alphabet and how it is pronounced.
Gothic has an alphabet of its own, devised by the bishop Wulfila in the 4th century. He needed it to translate the Bible into Gothic as a means of converting the Goths to Christianity, and, as you may remember from the introduction, Wulfila's Bible translation is the main primary source from which we know the language of the Goths. However, most if not all learning materials for Gothic do not use the alphabet, only including it in the beginning for reference. I will follow this convention, only because it would be tedious to switch back and forth between keyboards, and anything written today in Gothic would be more accessible to those who have memorized the language in its Romanized spelling. Feel free to learn and use the Gothic alphabet as you please.
In addition to having a sound, every Gothic letter also has a name and a numerical value. This is unlike English, but it takes after Greek and the runic scripts. Ancient Greek (and Hebrew) has a system by which each letter could be used to signify a number, and this was how they wrote down numbers. While Greek letters also have names (such as alpha, beta, gamma, and so on), the names come in large part from the names of the corresponding runes. The names of the Gothic letters are found in the Codex Vindobonensis 975, in which the Anglo-Saxon poet Alcuin recorded the Gothic alphabet and the names of the letters, alongside some other phrases.
This alphabet is an uncial version of the Greek alphabet, with additions from runic and Latin. The phonetic values will be transcribed using the standards of the International Phonetic Alphabet.
| 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) | 6 |
 |
z | [z] | ius (good) | 7 |
 |
h | [h, x]1 | hagls (hail) | 8 |
 |
þ | [θ] | þiuþ (good) | 9 |
 |
i, ï2 | [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) | 60 |
 |
u, ū | [ʊ, u, u:] | ūrus (aurochs) | 70 |
 |
p | [p] | paírþa (pear tree) | 80 |
 3 |
- | - | - | 90 |
 |
r | [r] | ráida (wagon, cart) | 100 |
 |
s | [s] | saúil (sun) | 200 |
 |
t | [t] | Teiws/Tius (the god Týr) | 300 |
 |
w | [w, y, ʊ]4 | winja (field, pasture) or wunja (joy) | 400 |
 |
f | [ɸ, f] | faíhu (cattle, wealth) | 500 |
 |
x | [kʰ, x]5 | Iggws (the god Ing or Yngvi) | 600 |
 |
ƕ, hv | [ʍ] | ƕaír (kettle, cauldron) | 700 |
 |
ō | [o:] | ōþal (homeland, ancestral land) | 800 |
 3 |
- | - | - | 900 |
1The pronunciation of /b/, /g/, /d/, and /h/ changes depending on the letter's place within the word. The letters take on the pronunciation of [b], [g], [d], and [h], respectively, when they begin a word or are next to an unvoiced consonant. Between vowels, voiced consonants, and at the end of a word, they will become [β], [ɣ, x], [ð], and [x].
2The letter /i/ is transcribed as /ï/ at the beginning of a word, or at the beginning of a syllable after /a/ so that it will not look like a part of a diphthong.
3These two symbols are only used as numbers; they have no phonetic value in Gothic.
4The letter /w/ is pronounced as either [y] or [ʊ] between two consonants, unless the consonant after it is a word-final /s/. There is some debate on the exact pronunciation here, with some people opting for just [ɪ].
5We're not precisely sure how /x/ was pronounced; it only occurs in loanwords from Greek. The Goths certainly did have the sound [x], but some people still believe that an aspirated [kʰ] is more correct.
Diphthongs
In this section, we will be moving into some controversial territory. There has been raging debate as to whether or not Gothic even has diphthongs. In the texts, we see the letter sequences /ai/ and /au/. Scholars have reached no consensus regarding the pronunciation, although more sources offer the pronunciation as [ε] and [ɔ]. Evidence suggests that, up to about the 4th century, /ai/ was pronounced as [aɪ~aj], and /au/ was pronounced as [aʊ~aw], unless they came before /r/ (in which case they were pronounced as [ε] and [ɔ]) or a vowel (in which case they were [ε:] and [ɔ:]). There are exceptions; for example, gáurs "sad" is pronounced [gaʊrs~gawrs]. The convention amongst those who support the existence of diphthongs in Gothic is to spell them ái and áu when they are [aɪ~aj] and [aʊ~aw], aí and aú when they are [ε] and [ɔ], and as just ai and au when they were [ε:] and [ɔ:], so as to avoid confusion. I personally use diphthongs in my pronunciation of Gothic, so I have included them here. It is up to you to decide what to do in this regard.
There is another diphthong, /iu/. This is simply pronounced by starting on [i] and gliding into [w]. Think of the sound "ew" that signifies disgust. The spelling /ei/ simply refers to the sound [i:], a longer version of [i].
Unvoiced [l], [n], and [r]
The sounds [l], [n], and [r] have unvoiced equivalents in the consonant clusters /hl/, /hn/, and /hr/. In order to make these sounds, put your mouth in the position to make the normal voiced versions, and try to pronounce [h] in that position.
Vocalic [l], [m], [n], and [r]
In some positions, the consonants [l], [m], [n], and [r] can take the function of vowels. Examples include bagms "tree", in which [m] is pronounced as a vowel.
That's it for this lesson. You can now move onto Lesson 2: Nouns.