Gothic alphabet

Origin

Gothic was originally written with a Runic alphabet about which little is known. One theory of the origins of Runes is that they were invented by the Goths, but this is impossible to prove as very few inscriptions of writing in Gothic runes survive.

The Gothic alphabet was invented around middle the 4th century AD by Bishop Wulfila (311-383 AD), the religious leader of the Visigoths, to provide his people with a written language and a means of reading his translation of the Bible. It is based on the Greek alphabet, with some extra letters from the Latin and Runic alphabets.

Used to write:

Gothic, an extinct East Germanic language which was spoken in parts of the Crimea up until the 17th century.

The Goths were divided into two main tribes: the Ostrogothi or Greutungi (dune-dwellers) and the Visigothi or Tervingi (steppe-dwellers). Related tribes included the Burgundians and the Vandals.

Gothic alphabet

There are no separate numerals, but each letter has a numeric value.

Sample text in Gothic (The Lord's Prayer)

Sample Gothic text (Lord's Prayer

Transliteration
atta unsar þu in himinan weihnai namo þein
qimai þiudinassus þeins wairþai wilja þeins
swe in himina jah ana airþai
hlaif unsarana þana sinteinan uns himma daga
jah weis afletam þai skulam unsaraim
jah ni briggais uns in fraistubnjai
ak lausai uns of þamma ubilin
unte þeina ist þiudangardi
jah mahts jah wulþus in aiwins
amen

Source: www.christusrex.org/www1/pater/JPN-gothic.html

Recommended books

Links

An introduction to Gothic - online lessons
http://members.terracom.net/~dorothea/david/gothic/

Database of the Gothic language
http://www.cs.tut.fi/~dla/gothic.html

Project Wulfila - digital library of texts in Gothic and other Old Germanic languages
http://www.wulfila.be/

Free Gothic fonts
http://www.wazu.jp/gallery/Fonts_Gothic.html http://robert-pfeffer.spacequadrat.de/schriftarten/
http://simplythebest.net/fonts/fonts/gothic_1.html

ALPHABETUM is a Unicode font specifically designed for ancient languages that includes Gothic, and many other ancient scripts
http://guindo.pntic.mec.es/~jmag0042/alphabet.html

Other alphabets

Armenian, Avestan, Bassa (Vah), Beitha Kukju, Coptic, Cyrillic, Elbsan, Etruscan, Fraser, Georgian (Asomtavruli & Nuskha-khucuri), Georgian (Mkhedruli), Glagolitic, Gothic, Greek, Hungarian Runes, Irish, Kayah Li, Korean, Latin, Lycian, Lydian, Manchu, Meroïtic, Mongolian, N'Ko, Ogham, Old Church Slavonic, Oirat Clear Script, Old Italic, Old Permic, Orkhon, Pollard Miao, Runic, Santali, Somali, Sutton SignWriting, Tai Dam, Thaana, Uyghur

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