Lesson 4
Weak Declensions: Masculine
The weak nouns are declined almost entirely differently from the strong nouns; only a few points of resemblance can be noticed, e.g. in the accusative and dative plurals.
In the weak masculine nouns:
- The nominative singular ends in -a
- The accusative singular ends in -an
- The nominative and accusative plurals end in -ans
- The genitive singular ends in -ins
- The genitive plural ends in -ane
- The dative singular ends in -in
- The dative plural ends in -am
Example (with article): sa guma: the man
Nom.
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sa guma
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thai gumans
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Acc.
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thana guman
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thans gumans
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Gen.
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this gumins
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thize gumane
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Dat.
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thamma gumin
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thaim gumam
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Some other weak masculine nouns:
- sa atta: the father
- sa bloma: the flower (cf. "bloom")
- sa brunna: the well (in Old English this word became burna "stream", and is still used in river names ending in -bourn)
- sa fula: the foal
- sa galga: the cross (cf. "gallows")
- sa garda: the yard, the fold
- sa Guta: the Goth
- sa Austraguta: the Ostrogoth
- sa hana: the rooster (cf. "hen", which comes from the feminine form of this noun, which originally meant "the singer")
- sa magula: the little boy
- sa matha: the worm
- sa mena: the moon
- sa milhma: the cloud
- sa skuggwa: the mirror
- sa sparwa: the sparrow
- sa sunna: the sun
- sa unhultha: the demon
There are a lot of names of "occupations" (words indicating profession or status) in this class:
- sa aizasmitha: the coppersmith
- sa bandja: the prisoner
- sa baurgja: the citizen (one from a baurgs or city)
- sa fiskja: the fisher (one who catches fiskans)
- sa frauja: the master, the lord
- sa garazna: the neighbor (one in a nearby razn or house)
- sa gudja: the priest (one who worships tho guda, the gods)
- sa haurnja: the horn-blower
- sa swiglja: the piper
- sa tharba: the beggar
- sa timrja: the carpenter (cf. English "timber")
- sa wardja: the guard
- sa waurstwja: the worker
- sa weiha: the priest ("the holy one")
There are many more weak masculine nouns. There are a few slightly irregular nouns in this declension:
sa manna: the man
Nom.
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sa manna
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thai mans OR thai mannans
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Acc.
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thana mannan
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thans mans OR thans mannans
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Gen.
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this mans
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thize manne
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Dat.
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thamma mann
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thaim mannam
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Here we have g.s. mans instead of *mannins, g.p. manne instead of *mannane, d.s. mann instead of *mannin.
sa aba: the man
Nom.
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sa aba
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thai abans
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Acc.
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thana aban
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thans abans
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Gen.
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this abins
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thize abne
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Dat.
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thamma abin
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thaim abnam
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sa auhsa: the ox also has g.p. auhsne instead of *auhsane.
Weak Declensions: Neuter
These are like the masculines in the Genitive and Dative, but:
- The nominative and accusative singular end in -o.
- The nominative and accusative plurals end in -ona.
thata augo: the eye
Nom.
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thata augo
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tho augona
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Acc.
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thata augo
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tho augona
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Gen.
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this augins
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thize augane
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Dat.
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thamma augin
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thaim augam
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More vocabulary:
- thata augadauro: the window
- thata auso: the ear
- thata barnilo: the little child
- thata hairto: the heart
- thata kaurno: the (single) grain
- thata sigljo: the seal (cf. Latin sigillum)
- thata thairko: the hole
There are a few irregulars here too:
thata wato: the water
Nom.
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thata wato
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*tho watna
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Acc.
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thata wato
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*tho watna
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Gen.
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this watins
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*thize watne
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Dat.
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thamma watin
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thaim watnam
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thata namo: the name
Nom.
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thata namo
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tho namna
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Acc.
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thata namo
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tho namna
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Gen.
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this namins
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*thize namne
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Dat.
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thamma namin
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*thaim namnam
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Forms marked with * are reconstructed.
Adjectives
Adjectives, are, as you might expect, declined in all three genders to match the nouns they modify; painfully enough, they also have two distinct declensions (strong and weak) for all cases, numbers, and genders as well—giving each adjective 48 forms!
Actually, it's not that bad—many of the forms have already been met with. The strong declension is very similar to that of the pronoun sa; while the weak declension is the same as that of the weak noun.
Adjectives are declined weak when
- they follow the definite article sa
- they are present participles
- they are comparatives
- they are superlatives ending in -ma
- they are ordinal numbers (except for anthar "second")
- they are the adjectives silba "self" or sama "same"
Adjectives are declined strong only when
- they are possessive pronominal adjectives
- they are any of the following adjectives:
- alls: all
- anthar: second (cf. "other")
- ganohs: enough
- halbs: half
- hwathar: which of two (cf. "whether")
- hwelauths: how great (masc. pl. hwelaudai)
- hwileiks: what sort of (cognate to "which", OE hwylc)
- jains: that (over there); cf. "yon"
- sums: some
- swalauths: so great (masc. pl. swalaudai)
- swaleiks: such (actually cognate; the Old English word was swylc, Middle English swich)
Note that anthar, hwathar do not end in -s. This is a general change in Gothic: following a short vowel and r, final s was lost. This is also seen in nouns, e.g.
- sa wair: the man
- sa baur: the son, the child
The strong endings are:
Masculine:
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Neuter:
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Nom.
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-s
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-ai
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-ata
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-a
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Acc.
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-ana
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-ans
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-ata
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-a
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Gen.
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-is
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-aize
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-is
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-aize
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Dat.
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-amma
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-aim
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-amma
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-aim
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These are exactly the same as those of sa, except in the nominative singular masculine (-s instead of -a), the neuter nom. and acc. plural (-a instead of -o) and the genitive plural (-aize instead of -ize). The neuter nom. and acc. singular ending -ata may, however, also be the zero-ending.
Declension of masculine adjectives: (using the example juggs manna "young man")
Strong:
Nom.
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juggs manna
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juggai mannans
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Acc.
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juggana mannan
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juggans mannans
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Gen.
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juggis mans
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juggaize manne
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Dat.
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juggamma mann
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juggaim mannam
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Weak:
Nom.
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sa jugga manna
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thai juggans mannans
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Acc.
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thana juggan mannan
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thans juggans mannans
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Gen.
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this juggins mans
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thize juggane manne
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Dat.
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thamma juggin mann
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thaim juggam mannam
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Declension of neuter adjectives: (using the example juggata barn "young child")
Strong:
Nom.
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juggata barn
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jugga barna
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Acc.
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juggata barn
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jugga barna
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Gen.
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juggis barnis
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juggaize barne
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Dat.
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juggamma barna
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juggaim barnam
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Weak:
Nom.
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thata juggo barn
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tho juggona barna
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Acc.
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thata juggo barn
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tho juggona barna
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Gen.
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this juggins barnis
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thize juggane barne
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Dat.
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thamma juggin barna
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thaim juggam barnam
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In the neuter nom. and acc. singulars, jugg (with zero ending) is found as well as juggata. When the adjective is used as a predicate, the neuter singular ending must be zero. That is, one can say either juggata barn or jugg barn for "young child"; but one can only say barn ist jugg "a child is young". One (small) merit of this system is aesthetic: it breaks up what would otherwise be a monotonous sequence of case endings, e.g., instead of saying *du thamma godamma skalka "to the good servant", we say du thamma godin skalka.
A largish selection of not very difficult adjectives:
- bairhts: bright
- baitrs: bitter
- blinds: blind
- diups: deep
- dumbs: dumb
- fagrs: beautiful (cf. "fair")
- fulls: full
- galeiks: like
- goths: good (masc. pl. godai)
- gultheins: golden
- Gutisks: Gothic
- hails: whole (ai = o; the "w" in the English word is non-etymological)
- halts: lame (cf. "halt")
- hweits: white
- ibns: even
- juggs: young
- kalds: cold
- laggs: long
- leitils: little (the Gothic and English words are, surprisingly, not cognate in origin. However, the resemblance is certainly helpful in memorization!)
- liufs: dear, beloved (masc. pl. liubai; cf. archaic English "lief")
- manags: much, many
- mikils: great, big (cf. Scots "mickle")
- raihts: right
- rauths: red (masc. pl. raudai)
- siuks: sick
- smals: small
- swarts: black (cf. "swart, swarthy" and German "schwarz")
- ubils: evil
- weihs: holy
The Possessive Pronominal Adjectives
These are used much more often than the genitive case of the 1st and 2nd person pronoun; they normally follow the noun they modify, and agree with it in gender, number, and case. They are:
- meins: my
- theins: you (singular)
- ugkar: our (dual)
- igqar: you (dual)
- unsar: our (plural)
- izwar: your (plural)
These adjectives are never declined weak. Ugkar, igqar, unsar, and izwar lack the final -s of the masculine nominative singular strong adjective because of the rule already mentioned: -s is lost after r following a short vowel. Furthermore, you can never use the -ata form of the neuter nominative and accusative singular with these four adjectives (*unsarata, *igqarata, etc.): the neuter in these cases is therefore identical with the masc. nom. sing., with zero ending. Otherwise, the adjectives decline just like any other strong adjectives: hundos unsarai "our dogs", in landa izwaramma "in your land", etc.
To these we can add the adjective sein-. Sein- is unusual in that it does not have a nominative case: only accusative, genitive, and dative, which are declined just like the other strong adjectives. Sein- means "his, her, its, their" without distinction of gender or number; but it can only be used to refer to the subject of the sentence. Compare the following:
- Sa manna sahw hund seinana. The man saw his (own) dog.
- Sa manna sahw hund is. The man saw his (someone else's) dog.
- Thai gumans drugkun wein seinata. The men drank their (own) wine.
- Thai gumans drugkun wein ize. The men drank their (other people's) wine.
The Verb "to be"
The verb for "be" is rather irregular; it derives from a stem which appears as is- or sij- in the present tense, but conjugates like a Class V strong verb in the preterite: The infinitive is wisan.
Present:
ik im
thu is is ist |
wit siju
jut sijuts |
weis sijum
jus sijuth eis sind |
Past:
ik was
thu wast is was |
wit wesu
jut wesuts |
weis wesum
jus wesuth eis wesun |
As in other Indo-European languages with case, the verb wisan does not take an accusative object, since it does not represent an action done to something else; rather, it signifies either the equivalence of two nouns, or characterizes a noun with a descriptive adjective.
A few more words:
- aiththau, conjuction: or
- Alareiks: Alaric
- thata guth: the god (plural tho guda)
- Guth: God (as. Guth, gs. Guths, ds. Guda)
- sa hilms: the helmet
- inweitan, inwait, inwitun (I), verb: worship
- ith, conjuction: but
- ni … ni …, conjunction: neither … nor …
- simle, adverb: once, at one time
- Thiudareiks: Theodoric
- Wulfila, weak masculine noun: Ulfilas
Sentences: Exercise Answers
- Weis sijum thai Gutans! Alareiks ist thiudans unsar. Is mikils guma ist.
- Thiudareiks was Austragutane thiudans. Is was frauja ufar managaim mannam.
- Wulfila was weiha jah gudja in thaim Gutam. Is qath du im thata waurd Guths.
- Simle thai Gutans inwitun managa guda, jah thana sunnan jah thana menan in thaim himinam.
- Thata wato this brunnins kald ist. Ik ni drigka af thamma kaldin watin.
- Magulans meinai siukai sind. Eis ni sind hailai.
- Jus Gutans sijuth ni godai ni ubilai.
- Hanans jah sparwans sind fuglos. Sa hana mikils fugls ist, ith sa sparwa smals ist. Sa hana ist rauths jah swarts jah hweits. Is in maurgin siggwith, jah allai mannans wakand. Is itith managa kaurnona.
- Sa manna fanth mathans in hlaiba seinamma. Is ni et ina, ith is et thana hlaif this garaznins is.
Try these: Exercise Answers
- I saw a man in the field. His eyes were beautiful.
- All my children sat on the big red seat.
- Your ❨du.❩ cups are full of wine. ❨use genitive❩
- He saw the sick man, the blind man, and the lame man in the white house.
- Your ❨pl.❩ fathers were lords of all the land.
- The prisoner stole gold and silver from the big golden treasure of our lord.
- The sun is bright in the day, the moon is a light in the darkness.
- Theodoric took his ❨own❩ helmet to the land of the Ostrogoths.
- The name of your ❨sg.❩ second child is Ulfilas.
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