The Similarities of Ulfilas' Gothic Alphabet with the Ancient Bosnian Alphabet. Bosančica, or the Illyrian-Messapian Alphabet


Research Paper (postgraduate), 2018

14 Pages, Grade: 1


Excerpt


Contents

Summary

1 Short Historic Overview About the Conflict Between the Illyrian-Arian Bishops and Bishop Ulfilas Regarding the Arian Scholars and the Creation of the Gothic Alphabet
1.1 The Messapian Illyrian Alphabet

2 Short Description of the Characteristics of the Gothic Alphabet

3 Short Overview of the Characteristics in the Illyrian – Messapian Alphabet

4 The Old-Bosnian Alphabet – Gothic Alphabet – Messapian Alphabet
4.1 But what about Ulfilas’ alphabet?

5 Conclusion

Literature.

Summary:

The similarity and the differences of the Gothic alphabet (Ulfilas' Biblical-Gothic alphabet from the 4th century, the alphabet, that, according to many scientists, Ulfilas had created in order to translate the Bible into Gothic), together with the Messapian alphabet, and the Old-Bosnian alphabet, which was found in the areas of Bosnia and Hercegovina and was placed in the Western variant of the Cyrillic alphabet, and with the old Messapian (Illyrian) Alphabet (which was found by the German Nobelist Mommsen, and later on the great scientist who was researching the Illyrian culture and language Hans Krahe), was not the subject of any scientific paper (except the book "Goths in Bosnia" from 2016), even though these three alphabets are nearly identical according to their form and structure.

This paper discusses the similarities and the differences between the alphabets, as well as historical facts that show the mutual history of these three alphabets, with the goal to shine a light on the dark past of these alphabets and show where the Old-Bosnian alphabet comes from. Additionally, the paper tries to answer whether Ulfilas’ alphabet was indeed Gothic, Old-Bosnian or Illyrian since these appear to be one of the oldest alphabets in the Balkans.

Keywords: Old-Bosnian alphabet (Bosančica), Illyrian - Messapian alphabet, Gothic alphabet.

1 Short Historic Overview About the Conflict Between the Illyrian-Arian Bishops and Bishop Ulfilas Regarding the Arian Scholars and the Creation of the Gothic Alphabet

Ulfilas was the first Gothic bishop, who translated the Bible into the Gothic language and converted many Goths from polytheism to monotheism. At that time, it was regarded as Arianism or Christian teaching, which stated that Jesus is not a God and questioned the Holy Trinity, something that wars have been fought over for more than 200 years. Ulfilas spent the most part of his life in the Balkans (today’s Bulgaria), fighting with the Illyrian bishops for Arianism. The council of Aquileia from September 3rd 381 AD, where the trial of against Palladius of Ratiaria and Secundianus of Singidunum as defenders of Arianism was held, is very famous in church history[i]. During this council, Palladius and Secundianus are being relieved of their duties because they supported Arianism. This is also found in Ulfilas’ scriptures, who supported the Illyrian bishops and travels to Constantinople in order to support the Arians in front of the King, which was his last travel. Ulfilas dies in Constantinople in 383 AD, and his funeral was not just attended by Arians, but also by many catholic priests (Waitz, 1840).

The fact that Illyrian bishops knew Ulfilas during the translation of the Bible and fought with him together in the support of Arianism against the dogmatic catholic teaching, where Jesus is being held in the same position as god, leads to the conclusion that the bishops may have contributed to Ulfilas’ translation of the Bible into the Gothic language, as well as to the choice of alphabet and the implementation of the alphabet among the Gothic (Germanic) tribes. It must be mentioned that Goths and other Germanic tribes did not have their own alphabet other than runes, which they could not use to translate the Bible. Runes were signs of magic and polytheistic rituals. For the translation of the Bible into the Gothic language, which is claimed to have been written by Ulfilas, an alphabet was used that suited the Gothic language and their culture best. This does not include the Greek or Latin alphabets.

The comparison between the Old-Bosnian and Ulfilas’ Gothic alphabet reveals the fact that these two alphabets are almost identical. Furthermore, the fact that Ulfilas had contact with Illyrian (Bosnian) bishops at that time makes everything more understandable. However, one must ask the question of whether the Old-Bosnian alphabet is the identical twin of the Gothic alphabet, if the Messapian alphabet, which existed for nearly 2000 years before Ulfilas’ alphabet in the area of Illyria (or Bosnia) is also similar to these two alphabets.

1.1 The Messapian Illyrian Alphabet

The name Messapian comes from the Illyrian tribe of the Messapian people, who wandered from the Balkans (Illyria) to the other side of the Adria (Calabria or Apulia) for some centuries before our time. There are more than 300 different documents with their alphabet, written in stone plates or money bills.

The German Nobelist Mommsen, who received the Nobel price for his work as a Historian of the Roman empire in 1902, researched this alphabet in the documents and presents a detailed analysis of the Messapian alphabet in his book “Sub Italian dialects” (1850). As someone with great knowledge of the Italian dialects and old scriptures, Mommsen does not include this alphabet in the Italian groups, mainly because it is completely different and not at all similar to Italian or old Greek scriptures. Instead, it is more similar to the Phoenician alphabet, which leads Mommsen to the proposal that the alphabet has roots in the Phoenician alphabet and is older than the ancient Greek alphabet (Mommsen, 1850, pp. 49).

After Mommsen, Hans Krahe, a great researcher and scholar of the Illyrian culture and language researched the Messapian alphabet.

Like already mentioned, the comparison between the Old-Bosnian alphabet and Ulfilas’ alphabet shows them to be nearly identical. The natural flow reveals new facts: the Old-Bosnian alphabet, which is nearly identical with Ulfilas’, is older than Ulfilas’ alphabet; Ulfila just took the Bosnian (Illyrian) alphabet, today known as the Old-Bosnian alphabet and adapted it to the Gothic language. If the Messapians brought their alphabet from the Illyrian kingdom (today’s Bosnia), and if their alphabet is identical with the Old-Bosnian alphabet, then one can make the assumption that the Old-Bosnian and the Messapian alphabets are the same alphabets with different names, making the Gothic alphabet just another form of the Old-Bosnian alphabet.

In the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun in Visoko, there are Megaliths that are believed to have originated in 2000 BC, with signs of the Illyrian alphabet. The signs are also very similar to the Messapian alphabet, and the signs on the Humac Tablet, which is written in circular forms; the latter being a typical characteristic of the Messapian alphabet.

In conclusion, the direct similarity of all three alphabets shows that the three alphabets discussed are one and the same alphabet with three different names: the Messapian alphabet was named after the Illyrian tribe of the Messapian people, the Gothic alphabet was named after the Goths, and the Old-Bosnian alphabet was probably named after the Bosnian tribes or Bosnia itself.

Because this is a new theory and the truth is still to be uncovered, the findings will not make it any easier to come to a final conclusion. Many scientists believe that Ulfilas created the Gothic alphabet from the Greek, Latin and Runic alphabet. The scientific community is conflicted because of different characters that Ulfilas used and the question of whether he borrowed them from the Greek, Latin or Runic alphabet.

Why did no scientist consider the Old-Bosnian or the Messapian alphabet as the basis for the Gothic alphabet?

2 Short Description of the Characteristics of the Gothic Alphabet

The famous historian Georg Waitz (1840), who has largely uncovered Ulfilas’ biography, believed that Ulfilas worked on the translation of the Bible for 30 years and finished the translation by the year of 370 AD. A copy of this translation, which is believed to be a wonder, can be seen in the Silver Codex – Codex Argenteus in the Swedish University Library of Uppsala. Many believe that this translation was a big problem. In order to translate the Bible into the Gothic language, Ulfilas had to find characters and grammar and a common language for the translation of the Holy word into Gothic. The Greek biblical texts now needed a new linguistic spirit that Ulfilas had to borrow from the Gothic and create a great vessel for the Gothic people, without any tools. Despite knowing the Greek and the Latin version of the Bible, Ulfilas chose to use the Greek version. The reason for this might be because, at that time, even the lowest-ranked Goths could understand some Greek. After all, they had contact with the Greek culture. Greek was even used in the strong Roman empire by that time.

Ulfilas’ original translation is not available today, but scientists claim that the copy of the translation is nearly identical to the original. The absence of Ulfilas’ original scriptures makes it harder to imagine whether Ulfilas’ just used the Greek alphabet, Runes or even the Latin alphabet as a basis for his translation. By analyzing not only the translation of the Bible but also other texts that are available today and which are similar to Ulfilas’ grammar and alphabet, it can be concluded that Ulfilas’ alphabet had 27 characters, where two characters (18 and 27) stood for numbers and had no phonetic values.

Scientists believe that Ulfilas’ alphabet does not represent an invention but a transformation and adaptation of older alphabet material. This can be confirmed by the form and the flow of characters and their use as numbers. While the oldest scientists thought that the Greek alphabet was the basis for Ulfilas’ alphabet, others added the Latin Alphabet and Gothic Runes as a basis later on. The participation of these three alphabets in Ulfilas’ alphabet was evaluated to be different from different views (Krause, 2004).

According to different scientific opinions, Ulfilas had borrowed the most characters for his alphabet from Greek. However, for the forms of “h”, “r”, and “s”, it is believed that they are borrowed from Latin. The opinions are not unique when it comes to the “f” character since one scientist believes that the “F” is taken from Latin, while others think that it comes from the Runic alphabet. Many believe that Ulfilas borrowed the following characters from the Runic alphabet: “p”, “j”, “u”, “f”, “þ”, and “o”. The Germanic-Gothic characters for “þ” (similar to the English “th” or “f”) deviate fully from the Greek letters, which is why it is believed that these were borrowed from the Gothic alphabet. The letter “u” did not have a unique character in the Greek language. The “u” in Latin was easily replaced through the Gothic “q”, which is why the “o” was taken from the Runic alphabet as well (Jantzen, 1905).

But was it really like that? The characters and letters not found in the Greek alphabet are evident in the Bosnian Cyrillic and the Messapian alphabet.

3 Short Overview of the Characteristics in the Illyrian – Messapian Alphabet

As already mentioned above, the Messapian alphabet was brought by the Illyrians in the pre-antic time to Italy. There are more than 300 records written in this alphabet, found mostly in the area of Calabria and Apulia. They date back to the 6th century BC and as soon as to the 1st century AD. These are mostly tombstones, vases, dishes or coins, with similar names in the genitive or nominative. Furthermore, there are also some shorter texts with two or three sentences. The original versions of these texts almost disappeared completely, with only copies left behind (Krahe, 1964).

Krahe (1964) believes that the Messapian records show the best picture of the Illyrian grammar and some language structures, as well as some elements of the Illyrian culture. Additionally, Krahe (1964) connects the Messapian alphabet to the Illyrian culture, because the language structure, the semantics, and the word formations are almost identical with Illyrian.

This letter, found and recorded (before the original disappeared) by Luigi Cepolla in the year of 1805 in Basta, had the following vowels: “A”, “E”, “I”, and “O”. The vowel “U” does not exist because it is simply replaced by “O”. There are following consonants: “M”, “N”, “R” (written as “P”), “L”, “P” (written as Π, with a shorter right arm), “T”, and “K”. The letter “Q” is only found in front of an “O”, which should tell that the vowel is a “U”. There are also other consonants like “B” and “G” (written as Γ), “D” is written as Δ, and the “V” letter is used to signal the letter “U”. There is no “H” because it is unknown whether it was used as a vowel, a consonant or half-consonant. The “S” was written as a “C”, “Z” in front of the “T” becomes a “Š“. The “O” character with or without a dot in the middle was written much less frequently than other letters.

The Messapian alphabet is missing the letters “H” (Mommsen did not found it, except for some falsified letters), “U” (also missing from Latin), “Φ” (missing, but where it should be, there is the letter “P”, e.g. Aprodita instead of Afrodita), “X=χ”, “Ψ”, and “Y” (only found in falsified letters, just like Ω) (Mommsen, 1850, pp. 43).

[...]

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Details

Title
The Similarities of Ulfilas' Gothic Alphabet with the Ancient Bosnian Alphabet. Bosančica, or the Illyrian-Messapian Alphabet
Grade
1
Author
Year
2018
Pages
14
Catalog Number
V539497
ISBN (eBook)
9783346174178
ISBN (Book)
9783346174185
Language
English
Notes
Aus dem Buch Goti u Bosni (Goten in Bosnien)"
Keywords
Gotische Alpfabet
Quote paper
Prof.Dr. Bisera Suljić-Boškailo (Author), 2018, The Similarities of Ulfilas' Gothic Alphabet with the Ancient Bosnian Alphabet. Bosančica, or the Illyrian-Messapian Alphabet, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/539497

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