Yassine Mehdi

We have a criteria for inclusion. You cannot simply make "plausible" words or terms - they must actually be in use. — SURJECTION ^{/ T / C / L /} 11:08, 27 August 2023 (UTC)

@Surjection More details, please. Yassine Mehdi 11:26, 27 August 2023 (UTC)

It's simple - don't make words or phrases up just because they might exist, only add words and phrases that do exist. The link I posted has the full details. — SURJECTION ^{/ T / C / L /} 11:27, 27 August 2023 (UTC

@Surjection In this case does the words I added exist? Yassine Mehdi 11:37, 27 August 2023 (UTC)

I've had to delete many of your additions because they didn't actually exist. — SURJECTION ^{/ T / C / L /} 11:38, 27 August 2023 (UTC)

@Yassine Mehdi To add to this: there are rules for reconstructed terms, too. So as for Reconstruction:Gothic/𐌺𐌰𐍄𐍄𐌿𐍃 and its romanization: yes, that would be the logical inherited Gothic form of Proto-Germanic *kattuz, but that alone does not justify a reconstructed entry. Generally we include reconstructions if by synchronic derivation or borrowing it becomes clear that a word must have existed in a given language; basically, if there are attested clues to an unattested word's existence. The existence of a term in a mother language is however not a sufficient justification for creating a reconstructed entry for its hypothetical reflex in a daughter language. — Mnemosientje (t · c) 14:52, 8 September 2023 (UTC)

Proto-Germanic poetry

There was certainly poetry at the time Proto-Germanic was spoken. Already some of the earliest attestations of Germanic languages are poetic, and they share commonalities of meter (namely the Germanic alliterative meter) and of vocabulary; since some terms only occur in poetry we reconstruct these in Proto-Germanic. The Roman writer Tacitus speaks of Proto-Germanic poetry: "In their ancient songs, their only way of remembering or recording the past, they celebrate an earth-born god, Tuisco, and his son Mannus, as the origin of their race, as their founders." For the purpose of memorisation, history was recorded and remembered as song. These songs were without doubt written in meter—that is, they were poetry.

Do you think that there was no Proto-Germanic poetry because you view the early Germanic speakers as uncultured barbarians? The reality is that the Proto-Germanic speakers were directly descended from the earlier (still less culturally and technologically developed) Proto-Indo-Europeans, yet even back then there was poetry. The Proto-Indo-European poetic tradition is not just ancestral to the Germanic, but also to the Greek, Latin and Indo-Iranian poetic traditions, which include the Indian Vedas and the poetry of Homer. Some expressions, for instance "the wheel of the sun" or "imperishable fame", are shared between multiple Indo-European branches and may thus be reconstructed all the way back to PIE. ᛙᛆᚱᛐᛁᚿᛌᛆᛌ ᛭ Proto-Norsing ᛭ Ask me anything 02:35, 3 March 2024 (UTC)