The Phonology of Gothic Vowels

Abstract

Few languages have received more phonological investigation than Biblical Gothic, and with fewer generally accepted results. Disagreement on the consonantism centers around certain details, but in the vowel system it concerns the very heart of the matter. Posited inventories range from five to twelve vowel segments, not counting diphthongs. With the century-old battle for monophthongal interpretation of ai, au, iu finally decided (or very nearly so), a new conflict has arisen during the last twenty years about the phonological status of vowel length: philologically oriented linguists posit a length contrast, while structuralists have come to agree that length has no distinctive function in the vowel system. These disagreements suggest that there is something fundamentally wrong with the methodology of these investigations. The philologists have over-emphasized the ETYMOLOGICAL evidence, the structuralists the GRAPHEMIC evidence. The present study considers these kinds of evidence but is mostly concerned with the PHONOLOGICAL evidence: relevant parts of the phonological component of Gothic are reconstructed and are compared to the grammar of its parent language. It is found that vowel length is distinctive in Gothic, functioning critically in several of the most important vowel rules. The resulting phonemic inventory is /i u a I u iT* e o c* o* a*/, plus /e o u u/ in foreign words. (The length of the asterisked units is proved; their monophthongal values are here adopted, but /iw ay aw aN/ remain possible interpretations.) Phonetically, Gothic has [i u e o a i u T* e 5e a a], plus [ui u] in foreign words.*