The Ostrogothic Historian Jordanes from a Linguo-Historical Perspective

Abstract

The article deals with the debatable question of the ethnical identity of the Ostrogothic historian of the 6th century Jordanes, whose main work “Getica” is constantly under scrutiny by both contemporary historians and linguists. The article proposes the necessity of the linguo- historical analysis of “Getica” carried out on the interdisciplinatory basis and aimed at obtaining some new information confirming Jordanes’ Gothic origin. The paper concentrates on Jordanes’ unambiguous statement of his Gotic origin whose verbal form has been evoking more than a century-long discussion of his Gothic ethnical identity. This statement is analysed in comparsion with Late Latin sources and Gothic Bible, which testifies to a similarity in Jordanes’ manner of writing. The historical foundation of the analysis reveals in some cases a complete coincidence with the linguistic notions of concept and mentality, which are taken into consideration in the commentary on Jordanes’ above- mentioned statement. With regard to the notions of concept and mentality, the analysis results in substantiating Jordanes’ historically determined manner of writing, which serves as proof of his Gothic origin both by birth and language. Historical data concerning some facts of his biography referring to his place of birth and work as a notary in the locations where Latin was spoken enable to conclude that he could not but know the language of these territories and thus undoubtedly was bilingual.