Gothic/1/Accentuation

Codex Abrosianus

Hails!

Chapter One

1. Introduction
2. Gothic on your Computer
3. Gothic Alphabet
4. Accentuation

Chapter Two

1. Chapter Vocabulary
2. Cases of the Noun
3. Pronouns
4. Conjugation of the weak Verb
5. Word Declension
6. Exercises
7. Reading texts

Chapter Three

1. Chapter Vocabulary
2. Adjectives
3. Adverbs
4. Numbers
5. Exercises

Chapter Four

1. Chapter Vocabulary
2. Word Order
3. Strong verbs
4. Comparatives
5. Conjunctions
6. Neologisms
7. Exercises

Chapter Five

1. Chapter Vocabulary
2. Gothic-to-English Translation Exercises
3. English-to-Gothic Translation Exercises
4. Neologism Exercises

Appendix

1. Further Resources
2. Gothic Glossary
3. Answers to Exercises

Pronunciation

Pronunciation refers to how a word is pronounced. No matter what language it is you are studying, pronunciation is important. For example in English, the word "record" has two different accentuations which can completely change its meaning, and its relation to the whole sentence - with the stress on the first syllable, it is a noun, but with stress on the second syllable, it is a verb.

To understand how to accent words, you must understand the concept of a syllable. A syllable is simply what can be considered one sound within a sentence. For example, the word sentence has two syllables: "sen·tence", and "considered" has three: "con·sid·ered". A simple way to detect the amount of syllables in a word is to pronounce the word out loud, with your hand on your chin. Counting the amount of times you chin extends down will give you the approximate amount of syllables within a sentence.

Pronunciation in Gothic

Pronunciation in Gothic is much simpler than that of English. In simple words, the stress always falls on the first syllable, even if the word has a prefix (something attached to the beginning of the word) or a suffix (something attached to the end of the word). Compound words, however, have a different pronunciation. If the second element of the word is a noun or an adjective, the rule for simple words is followed. However, in words where the second element is a verb, the first syllable of the second element is what is stressed.