Fringe Gothic

RFC-Gothic-l-2014-05-26: Point-based Gothic Reconstruction Adviser
This page outlines a half-automatic method of finding lost Gothic expressions from cognates in other languages.

  1. A point-based evaluation is a complement to a manual approval process and a decision by a committee will take precedence over the verdict by this reconstruction adviser. Over the course of many decisions, the adviser will help a committee stay objective with regard to the balance of polation. It will also alleviate their work load so preliminary judgement will be passed automatically when members of the committee are occupied.
  2. The reconstruction adviser should be implemented as a server-side application where many contributors can supply attestations and where software handles the evaluation.
  3. The more points a lemma gets, the more likely it is Gothic. By using a threshold, sufficiently Gothic words may be singled out for inclusion in a lexicon.
  4. We aim to recreate the Moeso-Gothic of year 350 Anno Domini.
  5. Expressions from scriptures written in Wulfilan script and dated prior to 1000 AD are considered Gothic regardless of points.
  6. Related languages are distributed in zones according to appendix A. This is so that geographical and historical connectedness will be accounted for.
  7. Points get awarded according to:
    P = Σ [x=1 to 8 of language zones]( Σ [y=1 to a of attestations sorted by age] ( A(y)^y))
    where A(y) is the number of points awarded to an attestation according to:
    A(y) = 1.000001^(-ABS(year_of_attest_AD – 350_AD)^2)
    ABS() is the absolute value, so that it returns the time-distance in years from AD 350. A(y) will return a value just below 1 for attestations close to 350 AD and 0.368.. for attestations from year 1350 AD or 650 BC. A(y)^y will ensure that additional attests give points but fewer and fewer. “sorted by age” means, the ones closer to 350 AD will come earlier and have more weight.
    Points awarded one form of an expression should affect the other forms to the extent their connection has been established.

Appendix A
Zone 1. Old Indoeuropean
Sanskrit
Tocharian: A, B
Sogdian
Armenian: Classical Armenian, Homshetsi
Hittite
Ossetic
Zone 2. Semitic & Classical
Aramaic: Samalian, Imperial A., Gallilean A., Old Syriac
Phoenician
Classical Latin
Greek: Ionic, Attic, Doric, Aeolic, Cypriot, Koine
Albanian: Gheg, Tosk
Zone 3. North-Western
Celtic: Old Irish, Welsh, Breton
Old English
Old West Nordic: Icelandic, Norweigan, Norn, Faroese
Zone 4. West Germanic
Frisian: North F., Old F.
Dutch
Low German
Zone 5. East-Nordic & Baltic
Old East Nordic: Runic
Danish: Jutish, Bornholmish
Swedish: Scanian, Gutnish, Elfdalian
Latvian
Lithuanian: Samogitic
Zone 6. High German
Old High German
Yiddish
Zone 7. Slavic
West: Polish, Czech/Slovak, Kashubian, Polabian
East: Old Novgorod, Ruthenian, Russian, Ukrainian
South East: Old Church S., Old Slovenian, Bulgarian
South West: Serbo-Croatian
Zone 8. Other
Finnish
Estonian
Turkic
Romance: Ardelenesc, Romanian, Aromanian, Franco-Provencal, Milanese, Catalan, Venetian, Ladin, Romansh, Friulan, Sardinian, Dalmatian, Istrian, Tuscan
Changes:
2014-05-29: Added Ossetian and Romance Languages as mentioned by M. E.

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