Vandalic was the

Germanic language The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in Europe, North America, Oceania, and Southern Africa. The most widely spoken Germanic language, ...

spoken by the

Vandals The Vandals were a Germanic people who were first reported in the written records as inhabitants of what is now Poland, during the period of the Roman Empire. Much later, in the fifth century, a group of Vandals led by kings established Vand ...

during roughly the 3rd to 6th centuries. It was probably closely related to Gothic, and, as such, is traditionally classified as an East Germanic language. Its attestation is very fragmentary, mainly due to the Vandals' constant migrations and late adoption of writing. All modern sources from the time when Vandalic was spoken are protohistoric.

Classification

Vandalic is traditionally classified as an East Germanic language, though the reasons for this classification are mostly historical and not linguistic. Due to the perception of Vandalic as an East Germanic language, its reconstruction from

onomastics Onomastics (or onomatology in older texts) is the study of proper names, including their etymology, history, and use. An ''alethonym'' ('true name') or an ''orthonym'' ('real name') is the proper name of the object in question, the object of onom ...

recorded by Greek and Roman sources relies on Gothic forms. Therefore, it is difficult to assess whether or not Vandalic is closely related to Gothic. Theories include that Vandalic together with Gothic and Burgundian formed a

dialect continuum A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of Variety (linguistics), language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are Mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulat ...

; that the language of the Vandals was actually Gothic; and that they were different languages that separated early on, without having an intermediary East Germanic ancestor.

History

According to their own

mythology Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...

, the

Goths The Goths were a Germanic people who played a major role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of medieval Europe. They were first reported by Graeco-Roman authors in the 3rd century AD, living north of the Danube in what is ...

originally came from

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

. It is debated whether Gothic, and by extension Vandalic, came from Scandinavia, as linguistic evidence shows no specific relation between North Germanic and either Gothic or Vandalic. Still, it is possible that both the Goths and the Vandals migrated from Scandinavia southwards, where their respective languages started to diverge from

Proto-Germanic Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the linguistic reconstruction, reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic languages, Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. Proto-Germanic eventually developed from ...

. The linguistic

urheimat In historical linguistics, the homeland or ( , from German 'original' and 'home') of a proto-language is the region in which it was spoken before splitting into different daughter languages. A proto-language is the reconstructed or historicall ...

of Vandalic probably lies south of the Baltic sea. They crossed the Rhine in the fifth century, establishing themselves together with the

Hasdingi The Hasdingi were one of the Vandal peoples of the Roman era. The Vandals were Germanic peoples, who are believed to have spoken an East Germanic language, and were first reported during the first centuries of the Roman empire in the area which i ...

and the Silingi in

Gallaecia Gallaecia, also known as Hispania Gallaecia, was the name of a Roman province in the north-west of Hispania, approximately present-day Galicia, northern Portugal, Asturias and Leon and the later Kingdom of Gallaecia. The Roman cities inclu ...

(northern

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

and Galicia) and in southern Spain, following other Germanic and non-Germanic peoples (

Visigoths The Visigoths (; ) were a Germanic people united under the rule of a king and living within the Roman Empire during late antiquity. The Visigoths first appeared in the Balkans, as a Roman-allied Barbarian kingdoms, barbarian military group unite ...

Alans The Alans () were an ancient and medieval Iranian peoples, Iranic Eurasian nomads, nomadic pastoral people who migrated to what is today North Caucasus – while some continued on to Europe and later North Africa. They are generally regarded ...

and

Suebi file:1st century Germani.png, 300px, The approximate positions of some Germanic peoples reported by Graeco-Roman authors in the 1st century. Suebian peoples in red, and other Irminones in purple. The Suebi (also spelled Suavi, Suevi or Suebians ...

) in c. 410 before they moved to North Africa in the 430s. Their kingdom flourished in the early 6th century, but after their defeat in 534 they were placed under Byzantine administration. The Vandalic language is presumed to still have been spoken at the time of the Byzantine conquest. It likely disappeared before the end of the century.

Attestation

Very little is known about the Vandalic language other than various phrases and a small number of personal names of Vandalic origin, mainly known from documents and coins. Most Vandalic names were recorded by native speakers of Latin or Greek, who might have misinterpreted phonemes or assimilated names to those common in their mother tongue. The regional name

Andalusia Andalusia ( , ; , ) is the southernmost autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain, located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomou ...

is traditionally believed to have derived from Vandalic, although this claim is contested. Following the Umayyad conquest of Hispania, from the 8th century to the end of the 15th the region was called . In one inscription from the

Vandal Kingdom The Vandal Kingdom () or Kingdom of the Vandals and Alans () was a confederation of Vandals and Alans, which was a barbarian kingdoms, barbarian kingdom established under Gaiseric, a Vandals, Vandalic warlord. It ruled parts of North Africa and th ...

, the Christian incantation of ("Lord, have mercy!") is given in Vandalic as "". The same phrase appears in 15 by Pseudo-Augustine: "". It is possible that this sentence is, in fact, Gothic, since the Vandals might have used Gothic as liturgical language. The epigram in the Latin Anthology, of North African origin and disputed date, contains a fragment in a Germanic language that some authors believe to be Vandalic, although the fragment itself refers to the language as "Gothic". This may be because both languages were East Germanic and closely related; scholars have pointed out in this context that

Procopius Procopius of Caesarea (; ''Prokópios ho Kaisareús''; ; – 565) was a prominent Late antiquity, late antique Byzantine Greeks, Greek scholar and historian from Caesarea Maritima. Accompanying the Roman general Belisarius in Justinian I, Empe ...

refers to the

, Vandals,

, and

Gepids The Gepids (; ) were an East Germanic tribes, East Germanic tribe who lived in the area of modern Romania, Hungary, and Serbia, roughly between the Tisza, Sava, and Carpathian Mountains. They were said to share the religion and language of the G ...

as "Gothic nations" and opines that they "are all of the Arian faith, and have one language called Gothic". The fragment reads: Other surviving Vandalic words are , "master" and , "King of the Vandals".

Phonology

The phonological features of Vandalic are similar to those of Gothic.

Vowels

The following vowel inventory is based on Wrede: * Vandalic was sometimes written by Latin authors. The Proto-Germanic long vowel * is often written in Vandalic names as (, ), but it is also represented as , . The Proto-Germanic short vowel * is often written as in Vandalic when it was not preceded by *. For example, contains -''i'' because ''g'' precedes the vowel, but retains the *e since ''r'' precedes the vowel. It could either mean that * turned into in Vandalic or that the Vandalic short was interpreted as by non-natives. Similar to Gothic, Vandalic does not seem to have i-umlaut. One example of items that demonstrate the lack of umlaut are names that contain the form * (< Proto-Germanic 'army'): , , , vs. Old English , the latter of which does show umlaut with the Proto-Germanic *''a'' having shifted to ''e''. Proto-Germanic * is written ; (compare Proto-Germanic ), . This could either mean that * turned into in Vandalic or that it is a misinterpretation of the sound by Latin authors. In Gothic documents, * is mostly written , but sometimes also . The Proto-Germanic diphthong *eu tends to come down to Vandalic as ''eu''. Take for example the form - ('people'), as opposed to the Gothic (), where it has changed to . The Proto-Germanic diphthong *ai is preserved as , but tends to become later on. For example, the name changes to in later documents.

Consonants

The Vandalic consonant inventory according to Wrede. * It is unclear how was originally pronounced. * It is likely that [] occurred in Vandalic, but there is not enough evidence for the sound. The Proto-Germanic * is also preserved in the language as a sibilant (always found written or as part of ), as opposed to having undergone rhotacism as it has in

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

West Germanic The West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three branches of the Germanic languages, Germanic family of languages (the others being the North Germanic languages, North Germanic and the extinct East Germanic languages, East Germ ...

. For example, compare the Vandalic form (as in ) 'spear' to Old English . The word-initial inherited from Proto-Germanic does not consistently appear in Vandalic names recorded by Greek or Latin authors (e.g., the element in and , from Proto-Germanic 'army'). Sometimes the same name appears with and without , depending on the author. However, royal names on Vandal coins use a conservative official spelling, with the always being written. This could point to either a loss of the sound represented by or errors introduced by authors unfamiliar with the sound. The Proto-Germanic fricatives * and * often turned into or , but there are also some names in which they were retained or otherwise represented distinctly: , . Initial is sometimes written as . This could be an issue of Latin spelling or a point to the development of . Examples are , < Proto-Germanic and , < . The Proto-Germanic cluster * can be found strengthened to . The Proto-Germanic cluster * can become , as in from Proto-Germanic .

Grammar

Very little is known about Vandalic grammar, but some things can be extracted from extant Vandalic material.

Morphology

The original Proto-Germanic ''*-z'' used to mark the nominative masculine singular in nominals, which was lost in

early on, is attested within some preserved Vandalic forms as -''s'' or as part of -''x'' (occasionally found

Romanized In linguistics, romanization is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and transcription, ...

in some name attestations as ''-us''). This marker is potentially to be deemed an archaic feature since it is lost in most words, with complete loss in

Ostrogothic The Ostrogoths () were a Roman-era Germanic peoples, Germanic people. In the 5th century, they followed the Visigoths in creating one of the two great Goths, Gothic kingdoms within the Western Roman Empire, drawing upon the large Gothic populatio ...

names from the 6th century onward. The epithet 'king of the Vandals' gives possible attestation of a genitive plural ending ''-e'' (cf. Gothic -ē), albeit written as within this form. Old Germanic languages outside of East Germanic have -''a'' (as in

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

and

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

) or -''o'' (as in

Old Dutch In linguistics, Old Dutch ( Modern Dutch: ') or Old Low Franconian (Modern Dutch: ') is the set of dialects that evolved from Frankish spoken in the Low Countries during the Early Middle Ages, from around the 6th Page 55: "''Uit de zesde eeu ...

Old High German Old High German (OHG; ) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally identified as the period from around 500/750 to 1050. Rather than representing a single supra-regional form of German, Old High German encompasses the numerous ...

) as their equivalents of this ending instead; compare Old English against the potential Vandalic form *.

Vocabulary

The tables below show various Vandalic words, phrases and forms that survive in (or as) names and various Latin texts. The majority of these were taken from .

Writing system

The few names on coins issued by the Vandalic kingdom were written in Latin script.