§ [220]. THE GOTHS.
(a) The Gothic language is the language of the Gothic peple (Gut-þiuda) which, divided into the two great tribes of the East and West Goths, figured in history in the time of the great migration. Together with the fall of the East Gothic kingdom in Italy and of the West Gothic kingdom in Spain the Gothic nation also past away. Only scatterd remains of the Goths and their language remaind until the beginning of the modern era in the Crimea. ('Crimean' or 'Tetraxitic' Goths.)
Note 1. The Goth. spelling of the name of the Goths as a peple is *Gutans and *Gutôs, with t, not with þ according to J. Grimm's suggestion which is supported by Kremer (Beitr., 8, 447). Concerning the form, inflection, and etymology of the name of the Goths, cp. Zs. fda., 9, 243 et seq.; Grundr., I, 407; Wrede, 'Ostg.', 44 et seq.; Beitr., 17, 178 et seq.; Ax. Erdmann, folknamnen 'Götar' och 'Goter', Stockholm 1891 (cp. Litbl. 1894, 249).
Note 2. The current interpretation of the two Lt. names Austro-, Ostrogot(h)æ, -i and Wisigot(h)æ, -i, as East Goths and West Goths, which dates back to Jordanes, might hold good for the former only; the name of the Wisigothæ which ar simply calld also Vesi, Visi, has nothing to do with 'west'. Ep. IF., 4, 300 et seq.
Note 3. Concerning the Crimean Goths and the remains of their language, s. Zs. fda., 1, 345-366; W. Tomaschek, 'Die Goten in Taurien', Wien 1881; Beitr., 11, 563 et seq.; F. Braun, 'Die letzten schicksale der Krimgoten'. Program St. Petersburg 1890 (cp. Anz. fda. 17, 167 f.).
(b) It was for the Gothic peple that the group of Germanic tribes to which the Goths belongd has been frequently calld the 'Gothic Group'. For this there has been recently proposed the name 'Vandilians' (according to Pliny, 'nat. hist.', IV, 99). The most important of these Vandilians ar the Goths, the Gepidae, the Vandals, the Burgundi, the Heruli, and the Rugii. At the beginning of the Christian era their abodes wer between the Elbe and the Vistula. The languages of these peples wer closely related. The extant literary remains, however, except in Gothic, ar very few, and these ar almost entirely proper nouns.
Note 4. Concerning the Vandilians, cp. F. Wrede, 'Ueber die sprache der Wandalen', Strassburg, 1886 (QF., 59), p. 3 et seq.; F. Dahn, 'Urgeschichte der germ. und rom. völker', vol. I (Berlin 1881), p. 139 et seq.; R. Much, 'Goten und Ingvaeonen. (Beitr., 17, 178-221).
(c) The Gothic or Vandilian group of tribes together with the Scandinavians constitute the 'East Germanic' division as opposed to the 'West Germanic' division which embraces the remaining Germanic tribes.
Note 5. Concerning the division of the Germanic race into East Germanic and West Germanic tribes, cp. H. Zimmer, 'Ostgermanisch und Westgermanisch', in Zs. fda., 19, 393 et seq.; Beitr. 9, 546 et seq.; Grundr., I, 362 et seq.; concerning the separate position of the Scandinavian as compared with the Gothic, s. Noreen, 'altisl. gr.2', [§ 2], and Grundr., I, 419 et seq.