Lesson 3
The Genitive Case
The Genitive is normally used to express possession or other close relationship between nouns, and can usually be represented in English by either "of" or by the possessive "'s". There are a number of other specialized uses (e.g., partitive, adverbial) which we can get to later. In both masculine and neuter a-stems:
- The genitive singular ends in -is.
- The genitive plural ends in -e.
The forms of both the masculine and neuter article are:
- Genitive singular: this
- Genitive plural: thize
For example:
- Thiudanis barna A king's children
- Thiudane barna Kings' children
- This thiudanis barna The king's children
- Thize thiudane barna The kings' children
- Tho barna this thiudanis The children of the king
- Tho barna thize thiudane The children of the kings
The Dative Case
In both masculine and neuter a-stems:
- The dative singular ends in -a.
- The dative plural ends in -am.
The forms of both the masculine and neuter article are:
- Dative singular: thamma
- Dative plural: thaim
The dative case can be used, as the name suggests, to represent an indirect object, e.g.:
- Sa thiudans gaf thamma barna maithm. The king gave (to) the child a gift.
- Thai thiudanos gebun thaim skalkam silubr. The kings gave silver to the servants.
Sometimes it can be used to represent a direct object with certain verbs; among those already mentioned are included tekan "to touch" and wairpan "to throw" (which also takes the accusative).
- Sa skalks taitok thamma barna. The servant touched the child.
- Thata barn warp thamma staina. The child threw the stone.
Most often it will be seen used together with prepositions. Some prepositions taking the dative:
- af of, from
- *afar after, according to
- *ana on, upon
- *at at, by, to
- *bi by, about, around
- du to
- faura before
- fram from
- in in, into, among
- mith with
- *uf under
- *ufar over, above
- us out, out of
The prepositions with asterisks can also be followed by the accusative. Some prepositions taking the accusative:
- faur for, before
- in in, into, towards
- thairh through, by
- undar under
- withra against
We now have the complete paradigms of the normal a-stem nouns: they are (using as examples stains and barn, with accompanying article)
Masculine:
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Neuter:
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Singular
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Plural
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Singular
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Plural
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Nom.
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sa stains
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thai stainos
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thata barn
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tho barna
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Acc.
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thana stain
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thans stainans
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thata barn
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tho barna
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Gen.
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this stainis
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thize staine
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this barnis
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thize barne
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Dat.
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thamma staina
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thaim stainam
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thamma barna
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thaim barnam
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Here are some more nouns; from now on I'll put the article sa (for masculine) or thata (for neuter) before them to indicate the gender.
- sa akrs: the field (cf. "acre")
- sa dags: the day
- sa himins: the heaven, the sky
- sa hlaifs: the bread (cf. "loaf", ai = oa; the plural is thai hlaibos, cf. "loaves")
- thata land: the land
- sa ligrs: the bed (cf. the verb ligan "to lie")
- sa maurgins: the morning (in maurgin: in the morning)
- thata milith: the honey
- thata razn: the house
- thata riqis: the darkness (the plural is tho riqiza)
- thata swein: the pig (cf. "swine", German Schwein)
- sa sitls: the seat
- thata wein: the wine
- sa wigs: the way
Some sentences with genitive and dative (and other!) cases: Exercise Answers
- Sa thiudans this landis sat ana thamma sitla.
- Thai bagmos standand in thaim akram.
- Tho barna thize skalke ni sehwun thana thiudan in thamma daga.
- Thai skalkos this thiudanis forun du thaim raznam.
- Thata barn wok in maurgin.
Exercise Answers
- The children's dogs slept under the bed.
- The wolves walk in the darkness.
- The child saw a bird in the sky.
- The twigs of the tree did not bear leaves.
- Kings eat bread and honey and drink wine in the day.
Personal Pronouns
And now for something completely different: Personal pronouns!
In the first and second persons of the personal pronouns, Gothic distinguishes three numbers: singular, dual, and plural The dual is used when two people, usually linked in some way, are concerned. The nominatives of these two persons are:
- 1st person singular: ik "I" (German "ich")
- 2nd person singular thu "you" (referring to one person; cf. archaic English "thou", German "du")
- 1st person dual wit "we two"
- 2nd person dual jut "you two"
- 1st person plural weis "we" (German "wir")
- 2nd person plural jus "you" (referring to several people)
1s
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2s
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1d
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2d
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1p
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2p
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Nom.
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ik
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thu
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wit
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jut
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weis
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jus
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Acc.
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mik
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thuk
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ugkis
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igqis
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uns
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izwis
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Gen.
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meina
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theina
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ugkara
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igqara
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unsara
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izwara
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Dat.
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mis
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thus
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ugkis
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igqis
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uns
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izwis
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Some facts are worth noting about this array:
- The nominative is usually quite different from the other, "oblique" cases. This is also often true in English; cf. I vs. me, my; we vs. us, our.
- The singular has one set of endings for the oblique cases: acc. -k, gen. -eina, dat. -s, and the dual and plural have another: acc. -is, gen. -ara, dat. -is.
- In the dual and plural the accusative and dative forms are identical.
Unsis is found as well as uns for the 1st person plural accusative and dative "us". The genitive of the 1st and 2nd personal pronouns is not found so often as the related adjective (which we'll be getting to soon!); both normally follow the nouns they modify, rather than preceding it, e.g. hunds meina "my dog".
Third Person Pronouns (masculine and neuter)
Masculine: "he"
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Neuter: "it"
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Singular
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Plural
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Singular
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Plural
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Nom.
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is
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eis
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ita
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ija
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Acc.
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ina
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ins
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ita
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ija
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Gen.
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is
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ize
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is
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ize
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Dat.
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imma
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im
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imma
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im
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These share "pronominal" endings with the demonstrative pronoun/article already used: cf. thana/ina, thata/ita, thamma/imma, thans/ins, thize/ize. Pronouns agree with their antecedent in gender, e.g.
- Is nam thata barn jah bar ita "He took the child and carried him"
1st and 2nd Persons of Verbs
As with the third person, present and preterite have quite different endings (though not totally different) in the first and second persons.
Present:
- 1st person singular ends in -a: Ik saihwa ina. I see him.
- 2nd person singular ends in -is: Thu saihwis mik. You see me.
- 1st person dual ends in -os: Wit saihwos ins. We two see them.
- 2nd person dual ends in -ats: Jut saihwats uns. You two see us.
- 1st person plural ends in -am: Weis saihwan izwis. We see you.
- 2nd person plural ends in -ith: Jus saihwith ita. You see it.
Past:
- 1st person singular ends in zero: Ik sahw thuk. I saw you.
- 2nd person singular ends in -t: Thu sahwt ugkis. You saw us two.
- 1st person dual ends in -u: Wit sehwu ija. We two saw them.
- 2nd person dual ends in -uts: Jut sehwuts mik. You two saw me.
- 1st person plural ends in -um: Weis sehwum igqis. We saw you two.
- 2nd person plural ends in -uth: Jus sehwuth uns. You saw us.
The present 2nd person plural (jus...) is the same as the 3rd person singular, as both end in -ith. The past 1st person and 3rd person singular are the same, as both have the past singular stem followed by zero.
The 2nd person singular past ending (-t) is unusual in that it is not preceded by a vowel. (With this ending, compare archaic English forms like "thou wilt", "thou shalt".) This gives rise to some changes in the consonant preceding it.
The sequence -bt changes to -ft:
- From giban to give, we have thu gaft you gave (cf. ik gaf I gave).
- From dreiban to drive, we have thu draift you drove.
- From skaban to shave, we have thu skoft you shaved.
The sequence -dt changes to -st:
- From trudan to tread, we have thu trast you trod (cf. ik trath I trod).
The sequence -tt changes to -st:
- From beitan to bite, we have thu baist you bit (ik bait I bit).
- From itan to eat, thu est you ate (ik et I ate).
The sequence -tht changes to -st:
- From qithan to say, we have thu qast you said (ik qath I said).
So we now have the full present and preterite indicative active paradigms of the strong verb. The personal pronouns are actually rarely used with the verbs, but I'll include them as an aid to memory:
Present of hilpan to help:
ik hilpa I help
thu hilpis you help is hilpith he helps |
wit hilpos we two help
jut hilpats you two help |
weis hilpam we help
just hilpith you help eis hilpand they help |
Past of hilpan:
ik halp I helped
thu halpt you helped is halp he helped |
wit hulpu we two helped
jut hulputs you two helped |
weis hulpum we helped
just hulputh you helped eis hulpun they helped |
Some more sentences: Exercise Answers
- Ik sahw thana thiudan. Is gaf mis silubr is.
- Ni qamt du thamma akra theina.
- Thana hlaif ize etum, jah thata wein ize drugkum.
- Bairats gaitans meina du razna igqara.
- Is saiso thata kaurn in akra unsara.
- Eis gebun ugkis thans maithmans.
- Thai wulfos qethun, “weis etum thata leik this thiudanis.”
Try these: Exercise Answers
- I gave the gold and the silver to the servant of the king.
- You two came into my field.
- We sat with our children on the branch ❨asts❩ of the tree.
- We two gave them our land.
- The birds ate your grain.
- You ❨sg.❩ drink wine and you do not sow in your field.
- You ❨pl.❩ went to my house on that day.
Note: I do not own this material, nor did I write it. As far as I can tell, it is under no copyright.
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