Gothic/4/Neologisms
How to form neologisms in Gothic
[edit | edit source]Neologisms and reconstructions in Gothic can be formed by the methods of reconstruction from Proto-Germanic through sound laws, which describe how words changed from proto-Germanic into Gothic, or by a process of coinage and reconstructing how words would have been loaned into Gothic. Words for modern concepts like computers, airplanes or televisions will often do with coinages, words for concepts which might have existed in the time when the Goths lived but which are not attested can often be reconstructed from Proto-Germanic, but if a word was non existent in Proto-Germanic one can also loan a word into Gothic (this can be the case for later concepts which didn't exist in antiquity, or concepts which only existed in other areas or continents where Goths didn't live).
If one would, for example, desire to coin a word for computer one would look at the etymology of computer and base the formation on Gothic on the etymology of the given word. This word seems to originate in French as a combination of compute + -er (agentive suffix), where it further goes back to a Latin con- + putō, also meaning a calculator. The equivalent of con- in Latin is Gothic ga-, while "to reckon, calculate" can be translated with rahnjan. An agentive suffix in Gothic can be masculine -ja or feminine -jo. If we want to build our coinage, we can combine Gothic ga- with the attested rahnjan, and an agentive suffix -ja to form the coinage *garahnja for a computer. Understanding Gothic grammar is important for the formation of neologisms.
Loanwords can be taken in cases where a word was not likely to exist in Proto-Germanic, an example is a maze, which could also be translated by the word labyrinth. This word could be loaned from Greek λαβύρινθος as labwrinþus, while taking into account the way how words are loaned into Gothic from Greek and Latin.
An overview of more than several thousands of neologisms already formed in Gothic by other people can be found in the following spreadsheet.
How to reconstruct from Proto-Germanic to Gothic, an introduction
[edit | edit source]Although there are many laws to keep into consideration, a small introduction into the reconstruction process from Proto-Germanic to Gothic can be given here.