Luthic: Difference between revisions

The diphthongs au, ae and oe [[wikt:AP:pron:la|[au̯, ae̯, oe̯]]] were monophthongized (smoothed) to [ɔ, ɛ, e] by Gothic influence, as the Germanic diphthongs /ai/ and /au/ appear as digraphs written ⟨ai⟩ and ⟨au⟩ in Gothic. Researchers have disagreed over whether they were still pronounced as diphthongs /ai̯/ and /au̯/ in Ulfilas' time (4th century) or had become long open-mid vowels: /ɛː/ and /ɔː/: [[wikt:𐌰𐌹𐌽𐍃#Gothic|𐌰𐌹𐌽𐍃]] (''ains'') [[wikt:AP:pron:got|[ains]]] / [[wikt:AP:pron:got|[ɛːns]]] “one” (German [[wikt:eins#German|''eins'']], Icelandic [[wikt:einn#Icelandic|''einn'']]), [[wikt:𐌰𐌿𐌲𐍉#Gothic|𐌰𐌿𐌲𐍉]] (''augō'') [[wikt:AP:pron:got|[auɣoː]]] / [[wikt:AP:pron:got|[ɔːɣoː]]] “eye” (German [[wikt:Auge#German|''Auge'']], Icelandic [[wikt:auga#Icelandic|''auga'']]). It is most likely that the latter view is correct, as it is indisputable that the digraphs ⟨ai⟩ and ⟨au⟩ represent the sounds /ɛː/ and /ɔː/ in some circumstances (see below), and ⟨aj⟩ and ⟨aw⟩ were available to unambiguously represent the sounds /ai̯/ and /au̯/. The digraph ⟨aw⟩ is in fact used to represent /au/ in foreign words (such as [[wikt:𐍀𐌰𐍅𐌻𐌿𐍃#Gothic|𐍀𐌰𐍅𐌻𐌿𐍃]] (''Pawlus'') “Paul”), and alternations between ⟨ai⟩/⟨aj⟩ and ⟨au⟩/⟨aw⟩ are scrupulously maintained in paradigms where both variants occur (e.g. [[wikt:𐍄𐌰𐌿𐌾𐌰𐌽#Gothic|𐍄𐌰𐌿𐌾𐌰𐌽]] (''taujan'') “to do” vs. [[w:Past tense|past tense]] [[wikt:𐍄𐌰𐍅𐌹𐌳𐌰#Gothic|𐍄𐌰𐍅𐌹𐌳𐌰]] (''tawida'') “did”). Evidence from transcriptions of Gothic names into Latin suggests that the sound change had occurred very recently when Gothic spelling was standardised: Gothic names with Germanic au are rendered with au in Latin until the 4th century and o later on (''Austrogoti'' > ''Ostrogoti'').