An Introduction to the Gothic Language (Ancient Language Resources)

The present work is designed to provide a carefully graded introduction to the grammar and vocabulary of the Gothic language. The material is presented in a way that I have found very effective in my teaching of other languages over the years with enough examples and exercise material to lead the student to a rapid and intelligent reading of the extant texts. In addition to this purely practical goal I have also tried to clarify to the extent possible the aspectual nature of the Gothic verb a subject somewhat neglected in the textbooks currently available in English. . . . Because the study of Gothic is usually undertaken by students of Germanic or Indo-European philology I have included a discussion of the historical phonology and morphology in a supplementary series of lessons whose contents parallel that of the corresponding lessons in the Grammar. . . . The texts given include all extant portions of the four gospels together with the extant portions of Romans and First Timothy. The Gospel According to Luke has been fully glossed at the foot of each page to spare the student the loss of time in looking up words . . . . The end Glossary contains the complete vocabulary of the Gothic Bible with the exception of proper names and a few transliterated Greek words. --from the Preface Thomas O. Lambdin retired as Professor at Harvard University. A world-renowned linguist he is also the author of Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Introduction to Sahidic Coptic and Introduction to Classical Ethiopic (Geez). His grammars have been translated into Spanish Italian German and Russian.