Gothic Language

Gothic Language, dead language, the only well-documented member of the extinct eastern branch of the Germanic languages. Gothic was spoken by the Ostrogoths of ancient Germany and Italy and by the Visigoths of eastern Europe and Spain. It was replaced by other Germanic and Romance tongues in the period between the 7th and 9th centuries ad. Except for a few Norse inscriptions in runes, records of Gothic are older than those for any other Germanic language.

Most knowledge of Gothic is derived from fragments of a translation of the Bible made by the 4th-century Gothic bishop Ulfilas. The largest and most splendid of these fragments is the Codex Argenteus, containing about half of the Gospels. The Gothic alphabet, traditionally devised by Ulfilas, consisted of 27 characters: 25 modified Greek symbols and 2 runes.