Gothic is an inflected language, and as such its nouns, pronouns, and adjectives must be declined in order to serve a grammatical function. A set of declined forms of the same word pattern is called a declension. There are five grammatical cases in Gothic with a few traces of an old sixth instrumental case.
Grammatical cases A complete declension consists of five grammatical cases.
Description of cases The nominative case, which is used to express the subject of a statement. It is also used with copulative verbs. The vocative case, which is used to address someone or something in direct speech. This case is indicated in English by intonation or punctuation, e.g. "Mary is going to the store" ("Mary" is nominative) compared to "Mary, are you going to the store?" or "Mary!" ("Mary" is vocative). The accusative case, which expresses the direct object of a verb. English does not have a distinct accusative case, though a small number of pronouns show different forms when they appear as direct or indirect object (e.g. he becoming him, she becoming her) The genitive case, which expresses possession, measurement, or source. The English possessive suffix enclitic "–'s" is derived from an earlier genitive case and is related to the common Gothic genitive suffix "-s", though its use in English is much more limited (non-possessive uses of the genitive case in Gothic are often translated in English using the word "of"). The dative case, which expresses the recipient of an action, the indirect object of a verb. In English, the indirect object is generally expressed by word order (e.g. I gave Mary the book; she bought me lunch) or by prepositions such as to or for (I gave the book to Mary; she bought lunch for me). The instrumental case, which is used to express the place in or on which, or the time at which, an action is performed. The instrumental case only survives in a few preposition forms in Gothic.
Order of cases Gothic language grammars often follow the common NOM-ACC-GEN-DAT order used for the Germanic languages. VOC is usually attached to the same line as ACC as a combined VOC-ACC, but if not, it may be placed between NOM and ACC (as in Wright's "Grammar of the Gothic Language").
Short vs. long stems An important distinction in many of the declension classes below is the difference between "short" and "long" stems. Frequently declension classes are divided into two subclasses, one for short-stemmed nouns and one for long-stemmed nouns.
A short stem contains: Either a short vowel followed by at most a single consonant (consonants at the beginning of an ending do not count), Or a long vowel or diphthong with no following consonant (other than possibly a consonant at the beginning of an ending),
A long stem is all other types of stems: Either a long vowel or diphthong followed by at least a single consonant (not counting consonants at the beginning of an ending), Or a short vowel followed by at least two consonants (same caveat concerning consonants at the beginning of an ending), Or a word whose root (minus any prefixes and suffixes) is more than one syllable in length, e.g. "counsellor", with root and being the long-stemmed -ja declension ending.
Strong noun declensions The -a declension This declension has counterparts as the second declension (us/um) of Latin, and the omicron declension (os/on) of Greek. It contains masculine and neuter nouns.
Case day m. word n. Singular Plural Singular Plural Nominative (+ vocative plural) dags –s dagōs –ōs waúrd – waúrda –a Accusative (+ vocative singular) dag – dagans –ans Genitive dagis –is dagē –ē waúrdis –is waúrdē –ē Dative daga –a dagam –am waúrda –a waúrdam –am
A varied set of nouns have two stems, one occurring with endings that are null or begin with a consonant (the nominative, accusative and vocative singular) and another that occurs with endings beginning with a vowel (all but the previously listed forms).
One common situation leading to two-stem nouns is the automatic devoicing of voiced fricatives at (or near) the end of a word, e.g.:
Stem ending in f changes in b. See table with further explanation below.
Stem ending in short vowel + r does not receive s (-z) in the nominative case.
Stem ending in -z does not lose the z in its nominative case. This has to do with the other cases and their pronounceability.
The Gothic language lost its -z as it changed into a -s in many words, though it remained when it is protected by a particle. For example: wileiz-u? (wilt thou).
More information about the exceptions in the -a declension can be found at page 82, §175 of Grammar of the Gothic Language written by Joseph Wright. (Link can be found at the bottom.)
Case loaf, bread m. head n. Singular Plural Singular Plural Nominative (+ vocative plural) hláifs –s hláibōs –ōs háubiþ – háubida –a Accusative (+ vocative singular) hláif – hláibans –ans Genitive hláibis –is hláibē –ē háubidis –is háubidē –ē Dative hláiba –a hláibam –am háubida –a háubidam –am
Other nouns with two stems are: masculine "servant" (accusative singular but genitive singular , nominative plural , etc.) neuter "knee" (accusative singular but genitive singular , nominative plural , etc.); neuter "tree" (forms parallel to ).
The -ja declension This declension is really just the -a declension with a j immediately preceding. However, due to various sound laws, a new declension subcategory has arisen that does not exactly follow the form of the plain -a declension. Similar developments occurred in Greek and the Slavic languages, among others.
This declension has as counterparts the second declension nouns in (-ius/-ium) of Latin. The counterparts in Greek are some second declension nouns in (-ios/-ion), as well as many that show effects of palatalization (e.g., -zdos < *-gyos or *-dyos; -llos < *-lyos; -ptos < -*pyos; -ssos or -ttos < -*tyos; -airos/-eiros/-oiros < *-aryos/-eryos/-oryos; -ainos/-einos/-oinos < *-anyos/enyos/onyos; etc., and similarly for neuter nouns in -ion or *-yon). It contains masculine and neuter nouns.
Case army m. herdsman m. race n. Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural Nominative (+ vocative plural) harjis –jis harjōs –jōs haírdeis –eis haírdjōs –jōs kuni -i kunja –ja Accusative (+ vocative singular) hari -i harjans –jans haírdi -i haírdjans –jans Genitive harjis –jis harjē –jē haírdeis –eis haírdjē –jē kunjis –jis kunjē –jē Dative harja –ja harjam –jam haírdja –ja haírdjam –jam kunja –ja kunjam –jam
The masculine nouns have a distinction between short- and long-stemmed nouns, as described above. "army" is a prototypical short-stem noun, and is a prototypical long-stem noun. Neuters, however, have merged the two types in favor of the short-stem endings. Properly, there should be a distinction in the genitive singular between short-stem -jis and long-stem -eis, as for the masculine nouns, but -jis has mostly taken over. For a few nouns, however, both forms can be used, as in genitive or "of service", or "of peace", from neuter nouns "service" and "peace", respectively.
Note that the neuters in this declension can be said to follow the two-stem pattern (e.g. kuni vs. kunj-) described above for a-stems. A few neuters in this declension follow the same overall pattern but have additional vowel changes between the stems: "region, district" (genitive ) "hay" (genitive ) "deed, work" (genitive )
The -ō declension This declension counterparts the first declension (a) of Latin, and the alpha declension (a/as) of Greek. It contains feminine nouns.
Case gift f. Singular Plural Nominative-Accusative-Vocative giba –a gibōs –ōs Genitive gibōs –ōs gibō –ō Dative gibái –ái gibōm –ōm
The -jō declension Nouns ending in -jō that have a short stem (see discussion above) behave identically to normal -ō stems, e.g. "strife", "relationship", "truth". However, long-stemmed nouns in -jō have a different nominative singular ending in -i:
Case band f. Singular Plural Nominative (+ vocative) bandi –i bandjōs –jōs Accusative bandja –ja Genitive bandjōs –jōs bandjō –jō Dative bandjái –jái bandjōm –jōm
Note that in this particular case the "long-stem" declension includes nouns with a long vowel or diphthong and no following consonant. In addition, these nouns have a different stem in the nominative singular from all other cases: (genitive ) "maiden" (genitive ) "maidservant"
The -i declension This declension counterparts the vowel stems of the third declension (is) of Latin, and the third declension of Greek. It contains masculine and feminine nouns. Note that masculine nouns have become identical to -a stem nouns in the singular, while feminine nouns have preserved the original declension.
Case stranger, guest m. wife f. Singular Plural Singular Plural Nominative (+ vocative plural) gasts –s gasteis –eis qēns –s qēneis –eis Accusative (+ vocative singular) gast – gastins –ins qēn – qēnins –ins Genitive gastis –is gastē –ē qēnáis –áis qēnē –ē Dative gasta –a gastim –im qēnái –ái qēnim –im
Similar to the situation with -a stems, some nouns have a different stem in the nominative and accusative singular than in other cases:
(acc. , gen. ) "fall", masc. (acc. , gen. ) "child, son", masc. (acc. , gen. ) "corpse", masc. (gen. ) "bridegroom", masc.; similarly "sacrifice", "place" (acc. , gen. ) "resurrection", fem. (gen. ) "labor", fem.; similarly "deed", "joy"
Some additional complications: "village" (fem.) is declined like a feminine -i stem in the singular, but like an -ō stem in the plural. Feminine abstract -i stems in -eins are declined partly like -ō stems in the plural: Case doctrine f. Singular Plural Nominative láiseins –s láiseinōs –ōs Accusative láisein – láiseinins –ins Genitive láiseináis –áis láiseinō –ō Dative láiseinái –ái láiseinim –im
The -u declension This declension counterparts the fourth declension (us) of Latin and parts of the third declension of Greek (cf. πῆχυς). It contains nouns of all genders. "property" is a neuter -u stem, and like all neuters from the u stem it lacks a plural. Other remnants are the invariant neuter adjective "much" (with an adverbial genitive ), and or "spike, goad", occurring once in a gloss. "cider, fruit wine" is attested only in the accusative singular and without any context to infer its gender, so it may have been masculine or neuter.
Case son m. property n. Singular Plural Singular Nominative (+ vocative plural) sunus –us sunjus –jus faíhu –u Accusative (+ vocative singular) sunu –u sununs –uns Genitive sunáus –áus suniwē –iwē faíháus –áus Dative sunáu –áu sunum –um faíháu –áu
Weak noun declensions (n-stems) The an, on and in declensions constitute a Germanic word derivation, which is also used for adjectives in the weak form marking definiteness. The declension loosely parallels the Latin nouns in -ō, genitive -ōnis/-inis, which shares the same Indo-European declensional origin (the Greek descendant being the more regularized -ōn, -onos class).
The -an declension
Masculines and neuters belong to this declension.
Case man m. heart n. Singular Plural Singular Plural Nominative (+ vocative) guma –a gumans –ans haírtō –ō haírtōna –ōna Accusative guman –an gumans –ans Genitive gumins –ins gumanē –anē haírtins –ins haírtanē –anē Dative gumin –in gumam –am haírtin –in haírtam –am
There are a few neuter irregularities:
Case water n. name n. Singular Plural Singular Plural Nominative-Accusative (Vocative) watō – watna –na namō – namna –na Genitive watins –ins watnē –nē namins –ins namnē –nē Dative watin –in watnam –nam namin –in namnam –nam
The -ōn declension
This declension is the feminine counterpart of the an declension.
Case tongue f. Singular Plural Nominative tuggō –ō tuggōns –ōns Accusative tuggōn –ōn Genitive tuggōns –ōns tuggōnō –ōnō Dative tuggōn –ōn tuggōm –ōm
Note: the first g in is pronounced . The Gothic language borrowed the practice of denoting by gg and by gk from the Koine Greek in which the New Testament was originally written.