Mariupol Gothic

Mariupol Gothic
Гутишка (Gutiškă)
Pronunciation	['ɦutiʃkə]
Created by	Aelfwine
Date	2019
Setting	Earth
Native to	Ukraine
Language family	Indo-European Germanic East Germanic Mariupol Gothic
Early forms	Proto-Indo-European Proto-Germanic Old Gothic Middle Gothic
Writing systems	Cyrillic Latin
Official status
Recognised minority language in	Ukraine, Russia

Mariupol Gothic (natively Гутишка Gutiškă ['ɦutiʃkə]) or Gothish is a Germanic language spoken by approximately 45,000 people on the northern coast of the Sea of Azov. It is an East Germanic language, closely related to Biblical Gothic, however the language is not a lineal descendant of Biblical Gothic. Nonetheless the speakers of Mariupol Gothic refer to themselves as "Goths" and their language still shares enough similarities with Gothic to be considered related. The language is critically endangered, with only a handful of native speakers remaining, with most acquiring the language as an L2.

History

The history of the Goths in Ukraine begins with the Ostrogothic settlement of the Black Sea in the 4th century. Along with the Greeks, Alans, Bulgars and others, they made up part of the population in Crimea that followed Orthodox Christianity and were incorporated into the Byzantine Empire as the Principality of Theodoro. After the secession of the principality in the 13th century, Theodoro was overrun by the Mongols and became a vassal of the Golden Horde. The principality enjoyed a period of peace until the Ottoman Empire annexed its capital city of Mangup in 1475.

The Goths managed to maintain their culture and language throughout Ottoman occupation, however a great number of them converted to Islam and assimilated into the Crimean Tatars. During her reign, Catharine the Great invited the Christian Crimean Goths to settle recently conquered lands north of the Sea of Azov. There they were given a special protective status within the Russian Empire and were exempt from the draft.

During World War II many Goths were expelled to various oblasts in Siberia to work as slave labour for the Soviet war machine. Like the Germans in the USSR, the Goths were feared to be sympathetic to the Nazis and therefore were persecuted heavily during World War II. While some Goths returned to the Black Sea after the war, many others had emigrated abroad to countries such as Brazil and Argentina.

Orthography

Since the 1800s Mariupol Gothic has been written in a Cyrillic alphabet based off of the Ukrainian script. The Biblical Gothic alphabet is also used, but it has been mostly limited to the liturgy. However, the Biblical Gothic letter þiuþ <𐌸> was imported to represent the /θ/ sound, it takes a form identical to that of Cyrillic psi.

(This chart is to be updated later as a picture.)

Cyrillic	Biblical Gothic	Romanization	Phoneme
А а	𐌰	a	/ɐ/
Б б	𐌱	b	/b/
В в	𐌱 (but smaller)	v	/v/
Г г	𐌲	gh	/ɣ/
Ґ ґ	𐌲'	g	/g/
Д д	𐌳	d	/d/
Е e	𐌴	e	/e/
Є є	𐌾𐌴	je	/je/
Э э	𐌴 (but backwards)	ə	/ə/
З з	𐌶	z	/z/
И и	𐌹	i	/i/
К к	𐌺	k	/k/
Л л	𐌻	l	/l/
М м	𐌼	m	/m/
Н н	𐌽	n	/n/
О o	𐍉	o	/o/
П п	𐍀	p	/p/
Р р	𐍂	r	/r/
С с	𐍃	s	/s/
Т т	𐍄	t	/t/
У у	𐌿	u	/u/
Ф ф	𐍆	f	/f/
Ѱ ѱ	𐌸	th	/θ/
Х х	𐍇	ch	/x/
Ү ү	𐍅	y	/y/
Ш ш	𐌵	sch	/ʃ/
Щ щ	𐍁	scht	/ʃt/
Я я	𐌾𐌰	ja	/ja/

Phonology

Vowels

In comparison to most other Germanic languages, Mariupol Gothic has an incredibly small vowel inventory of just 7 vowels.

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Mid	e	ə	o
Low		a

Nouns

Animate Masculine Stems

u-stems

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	каттс katts	каттус kattus
Vocative	катт katt	каттус kattus
Accusative	катт katt	каттунс kattuns
Genitive	катт katt	каттунс kattuns

Inanimate Masculine Stems

Mariupol Gothic inanimate masculine stems are inherited exclusively from Proto-Germanic an-stem masculine nouns. Example of an inanimate masculine stem noun, мина (moon):

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	минa mīnа	минaнс mīnаns
Accusative	минa mīnа	минaнс mīnаns
Genitive	минaнс mīnаns	мини mīni

Animate Feminine Stems

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	раздэ	раздэс
Oblique	раздэ	раздэс

Inanimate Feminine Stems

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	разда razda	раздус razdus
Accusative	разда razda	раздус razdus
Genitive	раздус razdus	разду razdu

Strong Neuter Stems

Gothish strong neuter stems are made up of former Proto-Germanic a- and u-stem neuters. Example of a strong neuter stem noun, бро̄т (bread):

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	брōт	брōдэ
Oblique	брōт	брōдэ

Weak Neuter Stems

Mariupol Gothic weak neuter stems are inherited exclusively from Proto-Germanic an-stem neuters. Example of a weak neuter stem noun, о̄гэ (eye):

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	ōгэ	ōгэнэ
Oblique	ōгэ	ōгэнэ

Adjectives

The adjectives have been greatly simplified since Proto-Germanic. They are divided into two different forms, strong and weak, and agree in case, number and gender with the noun they modify.

Strong							Weak
	Masculine		Feminine		Neuter		Masculine		Feminine		Neuter
	SG	PL	SG	PL	SG	PL	SG	PL	SG	PL	SG	PL
NOM	-с	-э	-э	-эс	-этэ -	-э	-э	-энс	-э	-энс	-э	-энэ
OBL	-								-эн

Verbs

Verbs are usually cited in four parts: the infinitive, the Typically, the preterite

All verbs regardless of class share an infinitive ending in -эн.

The passive voice is formed with the past participle and the word геэн geen "to go."

Class II

	Present		Preterite
	SG	PL	SG	PL
1st	бю̄дэ	бю̄дэмс	бōт	будэм
2nd	бю̄дэс	бю̄дэт	бōст	будэт
3rd	бю̄дэт	бю̄дэн	бōт	будэн
	INF	IMP	PART.PRS	PART.PST
	бю̄дэн	бю̄т	бю̄дэнс	бодэнс

Lord's Prayer

атта унсар ѳу ин еминам
вихна ѳин нама
квема ѳин рика
верѳа ѳинс виля
шве ин емина ях ана ерѳа