Swamp Gothic

Classification and Dialects
Swamp Gothic is, together with the closely related Crimean Gothic, one of the few remaining remnants of the Ostrogothic language. It is spoken in a few villages in the marshy areas of Volhynia around the Pripyat and Bug rivers, in territory in contemporary Belarus and Ukraine.

Historical phonology

 * 1) Graphic ai, au > e, o. I am assuming that Ulfila, who assembled his own alphabet and was free to draw distinctions, spelled them all the same way because they sounded alike to him.
 * a/o, ā/ō > o/a
 * θ, ð > t, d
 * 1) q > k; hw > v
 * 2) Open syllable rule: Closed syllables are reduced, in the following stages:
 * 3) Nasals: *N indicating either *n or *m not immediately followed by a vowel: aN, eN, iN, oN, uN → õ, ẽ, ẽ, õ, ỹ
 * 4) In a cluster of stops or fricatives + another consonant, the obstruent is deleted unless the cluster can occur word-initially.
 * 5) Liquids: eR, oR > eRe, oRo (see below)
 * 6) Consonants are palatalized by an immediately following *j:
 * 7) * sj, zj > ʃ, ʒ
 * 8) * nj, lj, rj > ň, ľ, ř
 * 9) * tj, dj > ʧ, ʤ
 * 10) * bj, pj, mj, wj > bl, pl, ml, wl
 * 11) Vowel fronting: After *j or some other palatal sound, back vowels are fronted (a, ā, u, ū, ai, au → e, ē, i, ī, ei, eu). This leads to regular alternations in the morphology.
 * 12) Prothesis: Before a word-initial vowel, j or w is usually inserted, depending on the vowel: je, ji wo, wu, but either ja or wa.
 * 13) Palatalization. k, g, x > ts, *dz, *ʃ before or occasionally after e, i. This leads to regular alterations in the morphology.
 * 14) Vowel quality shifts: All pairs of long/short vowels become differentiated as well by vowel quality:
 * a, ā > o, a
 * e, ē > je (with palatizations)
 * i, u > ɪ, ʊ
 * 1) * *ī, *ū, *ȳ > i, u, y
 * 2) Breakup of liquid-final syllables: or, ol, er, el > oro, olo, ere, ele
 * ur, ul, ir, il > syllabic r, l, ř, ľ
 * 1) g > h

qiþa auk izwis þatei nibai managizo wairþiþ izwaraizos garaihteins þau þize bokarje jah Fareisaie, ni þau qimiþ in þiudangardjai himine. (Matt. 5:20)


 * čito ok jizviš doče njibe monohiza verečič jizvorrezas horechtšẽ da dižje bakorri ja Farišie, ni do čimit in čudõhorodše himinje.