𐌷𐌹𐌻𐍀𐌰:Starter's guide

Welcome to the Gothic Wikipedia! This guide will help you get started with contributing here. It is recommended that you thoroughly read this guide before contributing to this wiki as you might get lost without it.

This guide also contains information on where to apply for adminship, how to add categories, good resources etc.

How to write an article

Articles on the Gothic Wikipedia must be written in the Gothic script. They also have to have a title in the Gothic script. For instructions on how to do this, see the next paragraph. Articles which are written in Roman script, or have a title in Roman script, should be deleted. The use of Roman script or any other script is only allowed when it's necessary, for example when showing a phrase in Latin, or showing a translation in Latin of a word, but a title is never allowed to be in any other script than Gothic because this is the Gothic Wikipedia.

Adding 'See also'

See also is translated as "Sai jah" in Gothic. Add:

==𐍃𐌰𐌹 𐌾𐌰𐌷== with the articles which are related to the article which you wrote.

Adding categories

T Under the content of the article, either add [[Category: ]] or [[𐌷𐌰𐌽𐍃𐌰: ]]

List of categories (make sure that you add them in the Gothic script):

English	Gothic
Alphabet	𐌱𐍉𐌺𐌰𐍄𐌴𐍅𐌰
Belief	𐌲𐌰𐌻𐌰𐌿𐌱𐌴𐌹𐌽𐍃
Birds	𐍆𐌿𐌲𐌻𐍃
Jews	𐌹𐌿𐌳𐌰𐌹𐌴𐌹𐍃
Kingdom	𐌸𐌹𐌿𐌳𐌰𐌽𐌲𐌰𐍂𐌳𐌹

How to write in the Gothic script

There are a few suggested methods as to how to do this outlined below.

Method 1

Download or set a Gothic keyboard and write with it.

Windows

To set the Gothic keyboard for Windows, see Microsoft - Default Input Locale

Or download MultiKey, which also works for older versions of Windows.

Mac

To download a Gothic keyboard for Mac, go to Weihos bokos - Gothic keyboard layout for Mac

Not everyone has access to this, especially on Android devices; therefore Method 2 might be more suitable.

Linux (X.Org)

To set the Gothic Keyboard layout on Linux, you just need to follow the instructions on Gothic Keyboard Layout for Linux.

Method 2

Go to Lingjam Gothic Language and type your Gothic text in Latin letters (v = 𐍈, y = 𐌸), after that copy the converted text to the Gothic script.

Method 3

Go to Gothic keyboard

You can also find a virtual online Gothic keyboard at: Virtualboard

When you're finished, copy your text and paste it to the article. It is necessary to be able to display Gothic unicode to use this.

Method 4

Go to this website.

It has a converter which enables you to convert Roman to Gothic or Gothic to Roman script. There is one downside, which is that breaks aren't correctly processed and displayed as
.

How to enable the Gothic font

If you only see blocks or do not like the standard font in use, you can use the Skeirs font, which was designed for the Gothic Wikipedia by Robert Pfeffer. For instructions on how to use it, see our special page How to enable the Gothic font. You will need a registered account.

If you want the Skeirs font to be always be used, you will need to select it in your account; if you do not want it to be used as the default font, de-select it.

You can also download the Gothic font add-on. gothic font converter

How to convert names and place names to Gothic

Gothic has differing writing conventions, but it is easy to get the hang of them. Place names need to be written with these conventions; Jerusalem is, for example, Iairusalems in Biblical Gothic. Here are the basic rules for converting sounds; sounds that are not mentioned below are written in the same way:

English letters	Pronunciation in English	Gothic equivalent	Example
oo	oo as in boot, /u/	u	Iairusalems (Jerusalem)
o	o as in or (short), /ɔ/	au	Appaullo (Appollo)
yo	yo as in York, /jɔ/	iau	Iaurdanus (Jordan)
ay	ay as in say, /eː/	e	Eleiaizair (Eliezer)
e	e as in west, /ɛ/	ai	Bairauja (Beroja)
ee	ee as in see, /iː/	ei	Galeilaia (Galilea)
o	o as in so, /oː/	o	Farao (Farao)
u	u as in Utah, /juː/	iu	Iudas (Judas)
ow	ow as in how, /aʊ/	aw	Pawlus (Paul)

Of course there are also vowels which don't occur in English, but do occur in other languages. Some of the most prevalent foreign vowels are:

eu: like in French 'fleur' or the 'eu' from ancient Greek, both should be transcribed as 'aiw'.
/y/: 'ü' like in German 'würde', Swedish 'u' in 'utan', Dutch written as 'uu', French 'u' in 'dur'. In Gothic this sound is transcribed as 'w'.

For a more extensive list, go to: writing foreign words and names.

Now let's apply these rules to some place names.

Use the place name in the original language and only reconstruct it if it is not attested in Gothic. Remember that v in many modern country and place names was usually changed to b in Gothic. Always try to use the 4th-century form of the most distant classic etymology of a place if possible; so for Belgium use the Latin Belgia, which might have been comprehensible to the Goths.

Utah = Iutah
Washington = Wausjiggtaun (ng = Gothic gg)
York = Iaurk
Cork = Kaurk
Belgium = Bailgia
Slovenia = Slaubainja
Milwaukee = Milwaukei

Writing an article about a city or How to write your first article, for real beginners

It is appreciated that people want to contribute with articles. If you do not know much Gothic, this might be a good way to start.

A is a (A stays untranslated in Gothic) city in B is translated as:

A ist baurgs in B

ist = is
baurgs = city
in = in (+ dative)

Gothic in takes the dative case here because it is being used to mark where something is. Country names with -ia have their dative forms ending in -iai; for example, in Bailgiai or in Makaidonjai. Country names that end with -land have the dative -landa: Krekalanda (Greece), for example; country names with -a have the dative -ai, like in Panamai.

So, if you wanted to write "Chicago is a city in the United States", that would be:

Sjeikago ist baurgs in Amairikai.

Or if you wanted to write "Lyon is a city in France", that would be:

Leiaun ist baurgs in Fragkalanda.

If you want to write capital city, baurgs becomes haubidabaurgs. Instead of in you use the genitive. For countries ending with -a or -ia you replace a with os. You replace -reiki with -reikjis and -land with -landis.

Now if you have a province or region, you replace baurgs with gawi.

Here is a list with countries, their Gothic form and the dative form in Gothic.

English	Gothic	Dative Gothic
England	𐌰𐌲𐌲𐌹𐌻𐌰𐌻𐌰𐌽𐌳	𐌰𐌲𐌲𐌹𐌻𐌰𐌻𐌰𐌽𐌳𐌰
Greece	𐌺𐍂𐌴𐌺𐌰𐌻𐌰𐌽𐌳	𐌺𐍂𐌴𐌺𐌰𐌻𐌰𐌽𐌳𐌰
Israel	𐌹𐍃𐍂𐌰𐌴𐌻	𐌹𐍃𐍂𐌰𐌴𐌻𐌰
Japan	𐌾𐌰𐍀𐌰𐌽	𐌾𐌰𐍀𐌰𐌽

Here is a list with attested cities and provinces in Gothic, categorized in countries. If it's in red, it means that there doesn't exist an article for it yet and that you could create one if you want. If a city or province contains 'ancient', is should be replaced with was.

Croatia (Gothic = kroatia):

𐌳𐌰𐌻𐌼𐌰𐍄𐌹𐌰, Dalmatia, province, ancient

Greece:

Phrygia (Gothic = Frigia)

𐌹𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌰𐌿𐍀𐍉𐌻𐌹𐍃, city, ancient

Macedonia (Gothic = Makaidonja)

𐍆𐌹𐌻𐌹𐍀𐍀𐌰, Philippi, city, ancient

Here are reconstructed city names for which no article exists yet:

Albania:

𐌴𐌻𐌱𐌰𐍃𐌰𐌽, Elbasan, city
𐍄𐌴𐌹𐍂𐌰𐌽𐌰, Tirana, capital city

Czech republic, (Gothic: Tseiaisko):

𐌱𐍂𐌽𐍉, Brno, city
𐍀𐌻𐌶𐌰𐌹𐌽𐌾𐍃𐌺𐌴𐌹, Plzeňský, city
𐍀𐍂𐌰𐌷𐌰, Prague, capital city

Help, phrases and tips for writing articles

If you don't really know Gothic well yet, but would like to start writing some articles already, here is some help.

to be

What you will often need is to use he/she/it is or they are.

he/she/it is = ist
they are = sind

The past tense is:

he/she/it was = was
they were = wesun

As you can see I left out the personal pronouns, these are usually left away in Gothic.

What if we would want to write what a person is? Here is a list of some professions and functions of people in Gothic, (I use asteriks here, but in Wikipedia articles you shouldn't use them):

actor = *fairweitlands (m. Nd)
actress = *fairweitlandi (f. Jo)
banker = skattja (m. N) / *skattjo (f. N)
king = þiudans (m. A)
linguist = *razdaleis (m. A) / *razdaleisa (f. O)
prophet = praufetes (m. U)
researcher = sokareis (m. Ja) / *sokari (f. Jo)
ruler = reiks (m. Noun)
writer = bokareis (male, ja-stem) / bokari (female, jo-stem)

So if we would want to write: Oscar Wilde was a writer, you first have to know how to transcribe Oscar, you learned above that a short o is written as 'au', so you have to use the o, and c is pronounced as k and doesn't even occur in the Gothic alphabet, so this becomes k, thus auskar. For Wilde you can choose to etymologically translate it, wilþeis, or transcribe it: waeild, as the i is pronounced as a-ee, you write a + ei = aei.

Now if you write Oscar Wilde was a writer that becomes:

Auskar Waeild was bokareis.

countries

Gothic has its own word for 'to border', 'gamarkon', to translate 'it borders', you use: gamarkoþ. So 'It borders Italia' would become:

gamarkoþ Itaalja.

People

When writing articles about people, you might want to use some of these phrases:

he/she was born in = warþ in ... + dative (can be both for space and time)
he/she was born in the year ... = warþ in jera ...
He/she died in .... = gaswalt in ... + dative (can be both for space and time)
he/she died in the year ... = gaswalt in jera ...

he/she has one child = aihtiþ ain barn.
he/she had one child = aihta ain barn.
he/she has ... childdren = aihti ... barna
he/she had .... children = aihta ... barna
he/she is called = haitada
they are called = haitanda

Numbers

Gothic uses its own system for numbers. Gothic uses the symbol • before and after the number and uses letters to transcribe numbers. So 1 for example is 'a' and written in Gothic 1 would be •a•. Here is a list with Gothic transcriptions of numbers:

Gothic	English
•𐌰•	1
•𐌱•	2
•𐌲•	3
•𐌳•	4
•𐌴•	5
•𐌵•	6
•𐌶•	7
•𐌷•	8
•𐌸•	9
•𐌹•	10
•𐌺•	20
•𐌻•	30
•𐌼•	40
•𐌽•	50
•𐌾•	60
•𐌿•	70
•𐍀•	80
•𐍁•	90
•𐍂•	100
•𐍃•	200
•𐍄•	300
•𐍅•	400
•𐍆•	500
•𐍇•	600
•𐍈•	700
•𐍉•	800
•𐍊•	900

In Gothic, numbers like 14 are formed by the decimal + the number under 10, so 14 = 10 + 4, which are the letter values i + d = •id• For numbers above hundred you first use the number of hundred, then the decimal and then the number under 10. So 539 for example is 500 + 30 + 9, these are the letter values f + l + h = •flh•. In Gothic numbers above the 1000 aren't attested. The best solution is to use the ancient Greek counting system which Wulfila used for this Gothic counting system too. By adding the symbol ʹ after a number, the first number under 10 becomes multiplied by 1000, so 2011 for example would become: 2 + 10 + 1 = b + i + a + ʹ = •biaʹ•.

Popular names in Gothic

If a name is of Germanic origin or an attested word of Latin, Greek or Hebrew origin, it is recommended to use these first names in an article which you write. Here you can find a list of popular names in Gothic:

English	Gothic
Robert	Hroþibairhts
Stan	Stains

Dictionaries

When writing an article in Gothic, a good dictionary is necessary. You could use this one, which is especially designed for this purpose:

PDF download of English-Gothic dictionary

Or you could use the Köbler dictionary; it contains many reconstructions, but is one of the best free online dictionaries for translation purposes.

Where to learn Gothic

If you don't know Gothic yet, it's necessary to study Gothic basic grammar first before you contribute here.

A special course is written on this Wikipedia to teach you to translate and learn the basics rapidly: Starters course.

You could start with studying the Gothic declensions and Gothic verbs.

A very good course consisting of 10 lessons to get you started is the Gothic course from the University of Texas.

A course aimed at the modern use of Gothic can be found here.

There is also a Memrise course to learn Gothic: The Gothic Language.

Genders and stems of neologisms

You might have trouble with genders and stems for neologisms, there are however rules for new words, as Wulfila included new words too. In this we differ between place names, names and otyer nouns.

City names

The rules are:

-ia is declined as a -jo stem.
-a is declined as an o-stem.
-us is declined as an u-stem.
Consonant + -em is the same in all cases, except for genitive -ems.

Other nouns

It differs based on what it's reconstructed of. If it's from Proto-Germanic, it's recommended to keep the same gender.

If it's from a language like English or Spanish use the following rules:

The gender should be the same as in the original language. So for example tapas from Spanish is las tapas, so use a feminine gender.
Masculine words with final -a should be declined as (m. N) words.
Feminine words with final -a should be declined as (f. O) words.
Words for professions and people doing something like butcher (skilja) and sel.er (frabuugja) are declined like (m. N) if the accompAnying verb is -jan. If the accompanying verb is -an, like in gibands (giver, verb: giban) or -on like in frijonds (friend, verb: frijon) it's declined like a masculine consonant stem.
Words with a consonant + u should be declined as (n. U) words.
Words, regardless of masculine or feminine gender with -us, shouold be declined as (U) words.
Words with -jo or in the original language -io or -ion are declined as (f. N) words in Gothic with the form -jo. So for example Greek εὐαγγέλιον becomes aiwaggeljo (f. N).
Words with -x or -ks become -ks and should be declined as (m. Consonant) words.
When borrowing from Latin, in -ium words the -um part is left out and in -us word the final -us is missing in Gothic, like in aket, akeit (vinegar) from Latin acetum.
An accented í in Greek becomes j in Gothic.
Words with -ar are declined as (m. A) stems, compare kaisar.
Words with -kn are declined as (n. A) stems, compare kelikn.

People from countries

When the country has the ending -ia in Latin, people generally have m. (U/I) stems (u-declension in singular, i-declension in plural).

Compare:

Iudaia - iudaius (m. U/I)

How to get your article on the frontpage rotation

The frontpage article rotates, this means that your article might be shown in some weeks once on the frontpage.

Here are the things which a frontpage article must have:

A good quality (no basic grammar errors)
A length of a few paragraphs. (An article with one phrase can't be on the frontpage)
Pictures which fit the article
Categories added are prefered
A good style, so for example using bold and italic text where it is expected.

Once you think your article is good enough, add it here:

Page gallery.

If there's enough agreement or if an admin accepts it, it can be added.

Adminship

If you want to become an admin because you want to help this Wikipedia by removing bad articles, cleaning it up, maintaining it, and countering spam or because you have some other good motivation, you can apply for adminship here:

Admin candidatures

After that, you have to add your application here (referring to the previous link when you apply):

Steward Requests

Please, keep in mind, if you are new to this community, you will need a very good reason to be accepted and will not be granted permission if there is not enough community support.

Admins

If you are an Admin, please consult the Admin guide to be informed about your tasks and what you can do.

Other ways to contribute to this wiki

Adding images to articles