Reliquie Gotiche

by C Ryan Moniz

original research· harvest 2019
updated & published· harvest 2021

philology

From an unattested Gothic *harjabairga ‘army camp, shelter, barracks,’ the Italian word for ‘hotel, inn’ is pronounced [älˈbɛrɡo], preserving the pronunciation of Gothic ai /ɛ/ which here represents the reflex of the Proto-Germanic vowel *e before an r. This Italian word also preserves the lack of vowel umlaut which characterized Gothic, as the Proto-Germanic harjabergō underwent umlaut in all of the surviving West Germanic forms such as Old English herebeorg — the origin of modern English harbor — and Frankish heriberga — the origin of French héberger ‘to house, accommodate’ which in turn is the root of modern English harbinger. The French cognate auberge ‘hotel, inn’ is probably either a borrowing from Italian or from the same Gothic source.

Meaning ‘to prepare, make ready,’ this word appears to reflect the Gothic weak verb manwjan ‘to prepare’ from the adjective manwus ‘ready.’ The Italian verb is an -ire verb with conjugated forms in -isc- which derive from the Latin inchoative suffix -sc-^❦1Maurer 1951, p 137, which may be a near calque of the factitive function of the -jan weak verb ending^❦2Lambdin 2006, p 251.

This Italian verb for ‘to furnish, decorate, fit’ derives from Gothic rēdan ‘to advise,’ itself from the Proto-Germanic *rēdaną. This loan preserves the e vowel quality unique to Gothic — the Proto-Germanic phoneme *ē /ɛː/ became *ā /ɑː/ in North Germanic — as in Old Norse ráða — and West Germanic – as in Old Saxon râdan & Old High German rātan.

The geminate cch /kː/ in this verb for ‘to take root, catch on’ appears to reflect the word medial allophone [x] — a velar fricative — of the glottal fricative phoneme h /h/ present in the original Gothic verb þeihan ‘to prosper.’

Meaning ‘mud,’ this word — along with French fange — preserves the Gothic fagga, which solely preserves a supposed Proto-Germanic *fangō ‘wetness, moisture’ not reflected in other Germanic languages; the form *fang- suggest a Proto-Indo-European root *ponk-, while the Old English fúht and modern German feucht ‘moist’ reflect a Proto-Germanic *funhtijaz ‘wet’ from a Proto-Indo-European root *pń̥k-.

This word for ‘chamberlain,’ along with the later form castaldo ‘steward’ (wherein the c may suggest Langobardic/High German influence), reflect the original Gothic gastaldan ‘to acquire, possess’)cognate with Old English stealdan ‘to possess’). The Gothic prefix ga- preserved in this word often indicated a meaning of ‘complete’ or ‘together’ in Gothic; this meaning was semantically bleached into a simple past or perfective marker in West Germanic languages.

The Italian word for ‘ribbon, tape’ derives from an unattested Gothic *nastila ‘belt, strap’ from Proto-Germanic *nastilō ‘headband, plait.’ The Gothic word had a cognate in Old High German nestila ‘band, strap,’ but Italian is the only Romance language which preserves the initial n — a similarly unattested Frankish *nastila was borrowed into old French as lasne ‘strap,’ whence modern French lanière and modern English lanyard.

With an archaic Italian variant triegua, this Italian word for ‘truce, rest, respite’ is loaned from Gothic triggwa ‘pledge, covenant,’ which derives from a Proto-Germanic *trewwō ‘fidelity, pledge’ (also the source of modern English truce). The Italian borrowing interestingly does not preserve the change from Proto-Germanic *e to standard written Gothic i, which may reflect a dialectal variation in the pronunciation of this vowel in Gothic.

❦1· Maurer 1951, p 137
❦2· Lambdin 2006, p 251