
Originally Posted by
Sigurd
Neither, nor. Gothic does not stand in the middle between German and English, which are both West Germanic languages. Gothic on the other hand is the major documented language along the East Germanic spectrum.
It is interesting in comparison to other Germanic languages in that it lacks rhotacism, has a more definitely visible reduplicated preterite, and in certain matters of its verbal and proverbal inflection, amongst other characteristics.
It is interesting in terms of documentation, since it is the earliest documented Germanic language, by virtue of Bishop Wulfila's bible, dating back to the 4th century CE, allowing us to pinpoint certain trends in diachronic perspective that we'd be without clue otherwise were it only for the relatively late-documented other languages.
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