by John Hemingway (August 2024)
The Semantic Context of the Gothic Preverb at-
Introduction
This three-part paper offers tenable etymological evidence that Gothic atbairan, athahan, andataugjantrace to Semitic origins and reflect the vestiges of Semitic verb-stem distinctions. The preverb at- intensifies the meaning of these prefixed verbs after the manner of the Hebrew Pi`el and Aramaic Pa``el, providing that this preverb is not prepositional in nature. Several instances involve idiomatic usage whose origins are little understood. The idiomatic meanings in these Gothic verbs can trace to Aramaic vernacular, especially Syriac. Without this understanding, the idiomatic meanings of the Gothic verbs cannot be well understood.
The Syriac connection to several Gothic words is intriguing because it implies that the geographical origin of a fourth-century segment of the Goth population, or their ancestors, traces to a particular area where Syriac was spoken. The apparent familiarity with this Aramaic dialect suggests a literary awareness of Semitic vocabulary and verb-stem distinctions whose traces were preserved in Gothic. Although this finding is in its preliminary stages, the Syriac connection suggests a more recent origin of Gothic and pinpoints it to the third and fourth centuries CE.
Part 1 - Etymology of Gothic bairan
Gothic bairan is in a class of its own. It does not have a single Semitic root source because it is a homonym: ‘to bear, carry,’ ‘to bear, endure, suffer,’ and ‘to bear, bring forth as a child or fruit’ [1]. These multiple meanings come from more than one source and signify a likely historical lexical convergence of several Semitic words of phonological similarity. Hebrew `BR ‘to become pregnant,’
‘to carry, be with young’ in the Pi`el stem [2], SBR ‘to bear, endure’ (Syriac Pai`el) [3], and PRY ‘to be fruitful, to have offspring’ (Syriac Pe`al) and ‘to beget, to bring forth’ (Syriac Aph`el)[4]bear the ideal conditions in which they could phonologically merge into the common root BR. After undergoing sound changes, their meanings remained intact in the word root BR: one homonym with several meanings. These sound changes are explained in order below.
Semitic Origins: the root BR
First, the sound change in `BR is the easiest to explain since it contains ayin /`/ which was not pronounceable in non-Semitic languages. Ancient Greek and Latin often elided it in Aramaic or Hebrew loanwords. Likewise, it would be lost in Germanic.
Second, Parthian, a Near East language contemporaneous to Aramaic, is known to have a high incidence of Aramaic words. Parthian br- ‘to bear, bring, carry, take, endure, experience, suffer’ [5] is an example of such borrowing from Aramaic. It exhibits the apparent fait accomplilexical convergence of `BR and SBR into BR, a bi-consonant root, after initial ayin and semkath /s/ were respectively dropped.
In fact, Parthian employs br- to create new words such as bwrd 'bg'm burdaβɣam ‘bearing pain,’ bwrdyft burdift‘patience,’ and bwrdyšnwhrburdišhor‘bearing gratitude [6], while using waw(representing the mater lectonis vowel /u/ or /o/),commonly used in Aramaic to create a new meaning or an extended meaning to an existing word. These words resulted from word deconstruction which ensued with the dropping of initial /s/ in the original word root SBR. This loss of the initial sibilant is also conspicuous in two other senses of SBR when the prefixed forms of bairan are discussed.
Third, the sound shift of /p/ to /b/ explains how the original root PRY is theprecursor of BR in Germanic. The sound shift occurred due to the Germanic aversion to initial /p/. According to linguists, voiced /b, d/, g/ shifted to unvoiced /p, t/, k/ as described in Grimm’s law [7]. These sound changes, however, are not uniformly applied as there is a dearth of Germanic initial /p/ words. In fact, /p/ is the second least utilized initial letter in A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary. To date, there remains no explanation for the historical Germanic aversion to initial /p/.
The shift of Semitic initial /p/ to /b/ is suggested to have occurred first [8], but the resulting overlap with existing initial /b/ words would cause confusion in the meanings of long-established initial /b/ words. When initial /f/ subsequently replaced initial /p/, it became established in Germanic vocabulary and the number of initial /p/ words diminished. This sound change violated the Semitic traditional pronunciation rules because fricative sounds like /ph/ (/f/) were not pronounced in the initial position. Finally, over time, PRY lost its weak final yod (/y/). Hence, PRY's lexical set of meanings ‘to be fruitful, to have offspring,’ and ‘to beget, to bring forth’ were preserved in bairan.
The Gothic Context: preverbs
Gothic bairan is the basic verb from which several prefixed forms such as atbairan, frabairan, gabairan, and usbairan are derived. Though the preverb at- is the focal point in this paper, other preverbs are included to show or emphasize their nuances of meaning. This manner of organizing the meanings makes easier the task of tracing the meanings of the Gothic prefixed forms to their Semitic roots.
atbar, atbair, atberun
The Gothic base word berun ‘to bring to’ is the preterite form of bairan. In the Gothic Bible, it occurs four times within the immediate context of the preposition du (‘to’). In comparison, atberun occurs five times and precedes du only thrice [9]. Since the preposition du does appear in the context of both berun and atberun, the prefix at- does not necessarily function as a preposition.
Other prefixed forms are atbair, appearing six times, and atbar once, in which both cases du is not once present. A comparison of the parallel accounts of Mark 12:15 (atbairiþ) “Bring Me a denarius” and Luke 20:24 (ataugeiþ ‘to show’) “Show Me a denarius” illustrates that the prefix at- does not give the prepositional meaning of ‘to.’ In fact, Mark 12:16 merely says, “They brought (atberun) it.”
What do atberun, atbair, and atbar signify then? If they are not used in the place of a preposition, they must have been used to modify the meaning of the base word berun. Gothic linguists recognize this. Balg refers to atbairan ‘to bring, to offer,’ while Regan gives the meaning ‘to bring to, take to, present (to)’ [10]. It is suggested that the preverb at- introduces an intensive or strengthening sense of ‘to present (to or self)’ as found in the retranslations of the following selected Gothic texts:
Mark 10:13
KJV: And they brought young children to (atberun) him, that he should touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought them.
Suggested retranslation: And they presented young children to him, that he should touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought them.
Mark 1:44
KJV: And saith unto him, See thou say nothing to any man: but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer (atberun) for thy cleansing those things which Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.
Suggested retranslation: …shew thyself to the priest, and present for thy cleansing those things which Moses commanded…
Mark 6:28
KJV: And brought (atbar) his head in a charger, and gave it to the damsel: and the damsel gave it to her mother.
Suggested retranslation: And presented his head in a charger…
Regan’s definition, ‘to present,’ implies a more solemn intention than bring to or show [11]. In other parallel accounts, it is noted that atberun invokes an intensive emphasis (Matthew 8:16), while the other account reads the ordinary in berun (Mark 1:32) [12]. This difference in word choice demonstrates the literary discretion exercised by Gothic translators to render the passages with more or less force of power. The verbs with the prefix at- are literal in meaning, yet intensive in degree of meaning.
frabairan
In the Gothic Bible, frabairanoccurs once, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear (frabairan) them now” (John 16:12). In the context of this passage, frabairan conveys a particular sense of ‘to endure, suffer.’ This meaning corresponds to Aramaic SBR ‘to bear, endure.’ Lambdin states that fra- has no corresponding preposition in Gothic [13]. This instance of frabairan demonstrates how different prefixes are appropriated to distinguish multiple meanings of a Gothic base word.
gabairan
#1 This verb frequently denotes ‘to give birth to,’ appearing 19 times in the New Testament and five times in the Skeireins [14]. It is observed that the prefix ga- provides the immediate meaning of bairan when the context does not provide clues to its particular meaning. Only three times does bairan occur without the preverb ga- [15]. In these instances, it expresses thesame meaning, but it is the context which makes clear the particular sense of bairan.
#2Mark 4:30 (KJV) reads, “And he said, Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare (gabairam) it?”. The Greek word from which gabairam is rendered is thōmen ‘to setforth, something to be explained by discourse’ [16].However,neither atbar‘to present’, nor usbar ‘to carry out; bring forth; put forward’ (discussed below) is used when either could approximate the Greek meaning of thōmen. Bucsko addresses this peculiar usage of gabairan by stating, “…while the preverb retains its meaning, the verb does not and is idiomatic” [17]. Rather than a word-for-word translation, the Gothic translator employs gabairan to express the contextual meaning of the Greek text. This usage may be traced to another sense of Syriac SBR ‘to consider, think’ in Pa``el [18]. The Pa``el meaning corresponds well to the idiomatic usage of gabairam in Mark 4:30, therefore the Gothic passage is retranslated to “by what parable shall we consider it?” The Syriac etymon lost initial /s/, like SBR, offering another example of the elision of initial /s/ in a Semitic word.
usbar
#1usbar denotes ‘to carry out; bring forth; put forward i.e. answer; bear’ [19]. It occurs five times, of which two are idiomatic in meaning. Bucsko addresses one idiomatic case in Mark 11:14, “And Jesus answered (usbairands) and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it,” in the following remark:
The second example is idiomatic because while the preverb is not idiomatic, retaining the sense of words going out or being brought forth, the verb is idiomatic; words are not carried or borne out except in a sense removed from the physical act of carrying, and the combination of the meanings of the components does not imply answering and could not be known from the word alone. It might be argued, since the preceding text in Mark gives no indication of Jesus’ actually responding to anyone, that the word might have a more literal meaning ‘bringing forth [a word’], but it is clear from the Greek word apokritheís (and the Latin respondens) it translates here that ‘answering’ is the correct interpretation [20].
There is reason to believe that this Gothic passage is not a mere translation from the original Greek. usbairands is a present participle, and it precedes the verb qaþ ‘to say.’ Lambdin indicates that where the participle stands before the main verb, both are translated as two coordinated verbs [21]. We can see how Mark 11:14 translates these Gothic words to “answered” and “said” with the addition of the conjunction “and.” However, there are exceptions to this rule. Lambin explains, “…the certain verbs of speaking and of manner are used idiomatically in this construction, where logically, as in the answering and the speaking are essentially the same thing (emphasis added).”
Accordingly, usbairands would deliberately modify the main verb qaþ ‘to say’ to describe the manner in which Jesus reacted when he found the fig tree barren. In this context, it is suggested that Mark 11:14 translates to something like “Jesus declared forthwith to the tree, “No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever.”” Yet another sense of Syriac SBR ‘to announce, declare, tell’ in the Pa``elvein appears to answer well to this peculiar idiomatic meaning of usbairands [22].If SBR is regarded as the origin of usbairands, it reinforces the notion that the dropping of initial /s/ was not an unusual occurrence.
#2The second idiomatic instance appears in the Skeireins, the next to second longest surviving Gothic text, which preserves a commentary on the Gospel of John. Skeireins 7:2 and 3 is reproduced as follows:
… Nor is he the only one, but Andrew also, who said, "There is a certain boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish," is in like manner reproved as well as Philip. Not thinking at all of the greatness or considering the sufficiency of the Master, as a result he exclaimed (usbar qiþands), "But what is that for so many?" But the Lord, accommodating their childishness, said… [23].
This passage places the main verb (usbar) before the present participle (qiþands) ‘to say’ in the opposite order of Mark 11:14. Bennet translates these verbs to a single one, “exclaimed,”whereas Marchand renders them as “spoke, saying”according to the grammatical order in which they appear [24]. This latter translation adheres to the rule of translating the Gothic idiomatic constructions of verbs, but the authorial meaning of usbar qiþandsis far from clear. However, the context immediately following clarifies the significance of these two verbs: “But the Lord, accommodating their childishness…”
Evidently, the Skeireins writer composed usbar qiþands as an adverbial construction to depict the manner of Andrew’s incredulous response. It would be probably more fitting to translate “he blurted out” instead of merely “he exclaimed” in order to match the authorial context of usbar qiþands. These Gothic word choices express the writer’s view of Andrew’s verbal act in a less than a favourable light. In this instance, Syriac ŠBR ‘to behave childishly’; ‘to be childishly simplistic, ignorant’ in Peˁal, it is suggested, explains the peculiar usage of usbar [25]. This Semitic etymon involves the loss of initial dental sibilant, this time shin /š/, in passing into Gothic.Had it not been for ŠBR, usbar would continue to be a puzzling idiomatic expression for Gothic linguists.
Discussion
This study finds that the preverbs of bairan convey the intensive meaning (i.e. atbairan) or particularize a nuanced meaning of a verb (i.e. frabairan, gabairan, and usbairan. In the latter case, it is interesting that us- is invoked to distinguish the meanings in two different Syriac verb-stems, Pe`al and Pa``el. As well, it finds that bairan evidences an etymological connection to a Semitic origin on each count of its multiple meanings due to the lexical coalescence of several Semitic words. `BR, SBR, and PRY lexically gravitated to the common root BR, passing into Gothic in the form of bairan. Though the distinct verb-stems became defunct in the lexical mergers, the original meanings were retained.
The loss of the initial sibilants is an illuminating finding which offers insights into the Semitic provenance of Germanic words [26]. The meanings of SBR ‘to announce, declare, tell’ and ŠBR ‘to behave childishly’ play no part in the lexical origin of bairan, but they are apparent in the Gothic idiomatic applications of usbar. These word roots point to the operation of the law of elision of the initial sibilant which was possibly nascent in late Aramaic and became more pronounced in Germanic. It is interesting that three different senses of SBR correspond precisely to Gothic bairan ‘to bear endure, suffer,’ gabairan ‘to consider, think,’ and usbar ‘to announce, declare, tell.’ This observation attests to the elision of initial dental SBR in Parthian and the etymological basis of bairan in Gothic.
On the other hand, it appears that /s/ functioned as a performative in Germanic vocabulary formation. Compare Old Icelandic sköllóttr ‘bald, bald-headed’ andkollóttr ‘without horns,’ ‘with shaven crown,’ or ‘having the hair cut short’ [27]. In another example, the performative /s/ basically tells apart OE snacc‘a small vessel, warship’ from naca ‘vessel, boat, ship’ [28]. These words are companions to each other (i.e. sköllóttr - kollóttrand snacc - naca), but at first glance, it is hard to tell whether one word or the other is the product of vocabulary creation through the use of the /s/ performative or the product of word deconstruction through the dropping of initial sibilant. To answer this question, further research is needed.
Finally, it is believed that the word bear comes from an Indo-European root shared by Sanskrit bharati, Greek pherein, and Latin ferre, intimating an ancient origin encompassing a wide geographical dispersion. Dictionaries often cite this etymological claim. The surprising correspondence of Gothic verbs to Semitic words, however, challenges the notion of a Sanskrit origin of bear. That the idiomatic meanings, as exemplified in SBR and ŠBR, surprisingly trace to Syriac should raise eyebrows because Syriac rose to prominence in the third century CE, not long before the Gothic Bible was composed in the fourth century. Surely, the Semitic roots of Gothic bairan are worth bearing in mind.
Endnotes:
[1] Balg provides the definition of bairan. Balg, Gerhard. A Comparative Glossary of the Gothic Language. Milwaukee: Benton, Waldo, 1887, 40.
[2a] Gesenius, Wilhem. Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon, London: Bagster, 1857, 602; Jastrow, Marcus. A Dictionary of the Targumim, The Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature. London: Luzac, 1903, 1039.
[2b] In the entry for `BR, the Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon notes, “Some of the unusual semantic developments displayed in this root (e.g. "to overwhelm", "become pregnant") may be due to conflation with remnants of the separate Semitic root ḍbr "to heap up.”” This note gives a precursory clue that the lexical convergence of words with the root BR was underway. Online: https://cal.huc.edu/.
[3a] Payne Smith, Jessie, ed. A Compendious Syriac Dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon, 1903, 359.
[3b] The CAL lists SWBR ‘to carry, to bear’ in other Aramaic dialects demonstrating how a mere waw crucially played a role in Semitic vocabulary formation. Also, the CAL includes SYBR ‘to bear, endure’ in Syriac.
[4]Refer to the lemma for pry in the CAL.
[5] Durkin-Meisterernst, Desmond. The Dictionary Of Manichaean Middle Persian and Parthian. Turnhout, Belgium: Breplos, 2004, 109.
[6] Durkin-Meisterernst, TDOMMPAP, 117.
[7] “Grimm’s law.” In Encyclopædia Britannica. Online: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Grimms-law.
[8] Parthian b’r/bār/ ‘fruit’ and b'rwr /bārwar/ 'fruitful; load-bearing’ (TDOMMPAP, 104) may indicate the sound shift of /p/ > /b/ as fait accompli. These words are believed to represent the earliest products of the short-lived shift of /p/ > /b/, although there may be no attested verb forms equivalent to those of PRY.
[9] One occurrence has no indirect object (Mark 12:16). In the other occurrence, du is missing, probably omitted in error (Matthew 9:32).
[10] Balg, ACGOTGL 40; Regan, Brian T. Dictionary of the Biblical Gothic Language. Phoenix: Wellsprings, 1974, 16.
[11] The Oxford English Dictionary Volume 8, Oxford: Clarendon, 1933, 1303. This dictionary gives the first definition for the verb ‘to present’ as follows: “To bring or place (a person) before, into the presence of, or under the notice of, another; to introduce, esp. formally or ceremoniously; spec. to introduce at court, or before a sovereign or other superior.”
[12] The Greek words for ‘brought’ are prospheró ‘to bring to, i.e. to offer’ in Matthew 8:16 and pheró ‘to bear, carry, bring forth’ in Mark 1:32.
[13] Lambdin, Thomas. An Introduction to the Gothic Language. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2006, 52.
[14] Bucsko, John M. “Preverbs and Idiomatization in Gothic.” PhD diss., The University of Georgia, 2008, 162.
[15] Three instances of bairan are found in Luke 1:57, 2:6, and 1 Timothy 5:14.
[16] Thayer, Jospeh H. Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament. New York: American, 1889, 623.
[17] Bucsko, “PAIIG,” 162. Interestingly, the NASB translates “… by what parable shall we present it?”
[18] Payne Smith, ACSD, 359.
[19] Translated from the German definition for us-bairan as cited in the Wulfila Project. Online: http://www.wulfila.be/gothic/browse/token/?ID=T32660.
[20] Bucsko, “PAIIG,” 167-68.
[21] Lambdin, AITTGL, 31.
[22] Payne Smith, ACSD, 359.
[23] The English translation by William H. Bennett may be found at https://www.gotica.de/skeireins/translations/english/bennett.html.
[24] The English translation by James W. Marchand may be located at https://www.gotica.de/skeireins/translations/english/marchand.html.
[25] Refer to the G (pəˁal) lemma for šbr in the CAL. Akin to ŠBR is TsBR “1) to chatter (a) to joke, speak foolishness;
2) to be delirious (a) to be confused” as defined by the CAL.
[26] For example, Aramaic špr ‘to be beautiful, pleasing’ and ‘to be proper, fitting’ (refer to the G (pəˁal) lemma for špr in the CAL) explains the homonymic meaning of the adjective fair, after taking into account the sound shift of /p/ to /f/ due to the Germanic aversion of initial /p/.
[27] Refer to A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic.
[28] Refer toA Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary.