Gothic

Where it was spoken

Gothic was the language of the Goths, an East Germanic people who migrated from the Baltic to the Black Sea region by the 3rd century CE, then westward into the collapsing Roman Empire. The Visigoths reached Spain; the Ostrogoths conquered Italy. Most Gothic speakers had switched to Romance languages by the 8th century, though Crimean Gothic survived into the 18th century.

What it sounded like

The closest relative of Proto-Germanic we have, with four cases, three numbers including a dual, and a complete strong/weak verb system. Phonologically conservative — preserved many features that Old English and Old Norse had already lost.

How it’s written

Wulfila invented the Gothic alphabet around 350 CE specifically to translate the Bible, drawing on Greek letters with admixture from Latin and runic Futhark.