Wiktionary:About Vandalic

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Policies – Entries: CFI - EL - NORM - NPOV - QUOTE - REDIR - DELETE. Languages: LT - AXX. Others: BLOCK - BOTS - VOTES.

(This page is a draft, and subject to change: do not take it a a guideline just yet. Please feel free to add suggestions here or to the talk page.)

Vandalic is an extinct East Germanic language. It closely related to Gothic, and it is not clear to what degree it actually differed from that language: ancient commentators did not seem to tell the two apart very well, as evidenced by Procopius' claim that Vandals and Goths spoke the same, "Gothic" language, and the author of the Vandal Epigram who similarly called the language he heard in Vandalic Africa "Gothic". Furthermore, there is some evidence that the Vandals used Ulfilas' Gothic Bible translation.

Nonetheless, it is often assumed that Vandalic was at least somewhat distinct from Gothic. This assumption underpins Wiktionary's coverage of Vandalic. The purpose of this page is to determine a normalisation scheme (compare WT:AGOH), within which to fit the few remains of Vandalic - most of which survives in the form of Latinized given names (i.e. as Latin or as reconstructed terms).

Normalisation[edit]

  • Vowel length should be shown where it can be assumed to exist etymologically, e.g. the -rīx part in *Hunirīx (cp. *rīx) probably has a long vowel, judging by its cognates.
Original Normalised Examples
ai (earlier), ei; e (later, 6th century, in Latin) ai, ei *Gaisarīx, *geis
ks, x ks, x *Hunirīx

Reference works[edit]

  • Francovich Onesti, Nicoletta:
    • Tracing the language of the Vandals (academia.edu)
    • The language and names of the Vandals (academia.edu); cp. Thema: Zeugnisse der vandalischen Sprache in Erben des Imperiums in Nordafrika: Das Königreich der Vandalen (2009, pp. 228ff.)
    • Goti e Vandali: Dieci saggi di lingua e cultura altomdievale (2013)
  • Merrills, Andy; Miles, Richard: the Vandals (2010)

Latin sources (i.e. with Latin names):

  • ca. 390, De conviviis barbaris
  • Corippus: Iohannis
  • Luxorius: Anthologia Latina
  • Vitensis, Victor: Historia persecutionis Africanae Provinciae, temporibus Genserici et Hunirici regum Wandalorum