published in: Das Königsreich der Vandalen, Karlsruhe 2009.

THE LANGUAGE AND NAMES OF THE VANDALS Nicoletta FRANCOVICH ONESTI

The Vandals spoke a language closely related to Gothic, with a few characteristics of its
own. Gothic is well known through the translation of the Bible made by Wulfila in the 4th
century. Like Gothic, the Vandal language belonged to the East Germanic group. It had
conservative features, due to the early date of the evidence: the 5th and 6th centuries. There is
no full record left of this language, since no written text in Vandalic has survived; but we
know a religious expression and very few single words mentioned in Latin or Greek texts of
the time; most information comes from 140 personal names. Almost all linguistic evidence
comes from the Vandal kingdom of North Africa. In such a peripheral position, far from its
sister languages of the Germanic family, Vandalic preserved archaisms on the one hand and
underwent an early process of Romanisation on the other.
Like Gothic, the language disappeared soon, and was lost about the time of the Byzantine
conquest (534). It had begun to fall into disuse in certain sectors of African society as early as
the second half of the 5th century. A bilingual period is however to be assumed for the
descendants of the Vandals, who could also speak Latin, especially in big towns such as
Carthage. From the analysis of personal names we can deduce the existence of multilingual
realities in North Africa. In churches, bilingual liturgies had to be adopted for Romans and
Vandals, and that is how we know about a Vandal liturgical formula.
The only complete sentence handed down to us is a two-word religious formula, the
acclamation “Domine Miserere” which was rendered as froia arme in Vandalic (cp. Gothic
frauja ‘lord’). The Vand. formula froia arme ‘Lord have mercy’ appears in a Latin text as .
froia . arme . quod interpraetatur “Domine miserere” and is preserved in a 6th-century
manuscript now in Turin (Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria, MS G.V. 26, fol. 15r-27r), and
recently studied by Tiefenbach [fig. 1].
Five more Vandalic words are mentioned in the Epigram No. 285 of Anthologia Latina (a
6th-century collection of Latin poems put together in Carthage), entitled “De Conviviis
Barbaris”, which says: Inter ‘eils’ gothicum ‘scapia matzia ia drincan’ / non audet quisquam

0
dignos educere versus. They are usually understood as ‘hail!’ (eils), ‘to shape’ or ‘create’
(scapia), ‘to eat and drink’ (matzia ia drincan), and the verse apparently alludes to barbarian
feasting. To African contemporaries gothicum ‘Gothic’ could be just another name for
‘Vandal’, as they believed them to be the same language; but there were some differences.
Both the Vandalic froia arme and the Epigram were well known to Wrede, the scholar who in
1886 collected all surviving traces of the Vandal language.

But since then new linguistic materials have emerged from the inscriptions of North
Africa, consisting of ninety more Vandalic personal names recorded on coins, tombstones and
other archaeological finds. Among these the following examples occur: Arifridos from a
mosaic in Thuburbo Maius (Arifridos in [pace] vixit annos […] depositvs di[e…] idvs
novem[br..] [fig. 2]), Beremud and Beremuda from Carthage, Fridila on an inscription from
ancient Caesarea, Guiliaruna on a 5th-century burial mosaic from Hippo Regius (Gvi+liarvna
presbiterissa qviebit in pace), Guitifrida was another woman, like Munifrida from Carthage,
Scarila a man who lived in the early 6th century, Sindivult from an inscription of Tipasa,
Valilu fidelis was a woman from Hippo Regius, and Vilimut from a Carthage inscription.

Just like Gothic names, also the Vandal show both double-stem compounded forms (ex.
Ari-fridos ‘army’+’peace’, Guilia-runa ‘will’+’secret’, Vili-mut ‘will’+‘courage’) and one-
stem diminutives (like Valilu ‘the little chosen one’, Scarila ‘little armed band’). The latter
show the typical East-Germanic suffix -ila (masc.) and -ilo (fem.). The characteristic East
Germanic features appearing in Vandalic are as follows: lack of Umlaut. The original Proto-
Germanic long vowel *ē is normally preserved, as in the Vand. names Gunthimer, Geilimer.
Short *e gives Vand. i (ex. Gibamundus, Stilico; the Roman general Stilico was of Vandal
origin). Proto-Germanic *z is always preserved: ex. Gaisericus (in Greek letters also
Gezérichos), Geisirith, from *gaiza- ‘spear-point’. All such features, typical of East-
Germanic, are also common to Gothic.
In a few cases the original -s ending of nominative masc. singular is preserved, as in vand.
eils, and in the kings’ names Hunirix, Hildirix rex and Thrasamunds (on coins); this is clearly
a rather conservative feature. Some of the names often have Romanized endings, like
Thrasamundus, Gunthamundus, Gibamundus.

1
 The main Vandalic linguistic characteristics which identify the language within the East-
Germanic group are the following: the original diphthong *ai can be preserved as ai, then it
tends in time to change into ei. For ex. the form Gaisericus (king 428-477) is regularly found
in a 5th-century chronicle, but in other historical sources the usual form is Geisericus. Later
on, we find the simplified spelling regis Gesiric on a 6th-century African inscription. Also the
name of King Gelimer (530-534), son of Geilarith, is officially Geilamir, Geilimer on coins
and inscriptions like the one engraved on his silver plate [fig. 3]; then we also find the spelling
Gelimer in Procopius.
The adaptation of Vandalic forms to the Latin linguistic environment began rather early in
the 5th century. We find for example the typical loss of h-, as in Arifridos, Ariarith, Gunt-ari
(from Proto-Germ. *harja- ‘army’). A special kind of Romanisation is the emergence of
mixed names, formed with Vandalic elements or suffixes, combined with Latin elements. This
process began rather early, and it goes together with the quick Romanisation of Vandalic
material culture as shown from archaeology. Hybrid names were formed with Latin and Vand.
elements, like Iulia-teus; multiple names of heterogeneous origin are recorded in North
Africa, like Flavius Vitalis Vitarit which combines the typical Vandalic name Vitarit with Lat.
Vitalis, one of the most frequent names of Roman Africa.
Outlining the linguistic forms of Vandalic is still a difficult task, unless new records in
this language emerge from archives or from ongoing archaeological excavations.

Further Reference

1- F. Wrede, Über die Sprache der Wandalen, Strassburg 1886.

2- H. Tiefenbach, “Das wandalische Domine miserere”, Historische Sprachforschung
/ Historical Linguistics 104, 2 (1991), 251-268.
3- N. Francovich Onesti, I Vandali. Lingua e storia, Roma 2002.