Question about sentence

[u/Despoteskaidoulos]

Hello, I’m working through Lambdin’s book and I’m stuck on sentence 5 of exercise D in chapter 10. The sentence goes:

Gahausjands is stibnos ize atiddja ut du im jah rodida du im.

I can’t make sense of the ‘is’. Without it I guess it would mean: Having heard their voices, he went out towards them and spoke to them. Something like that at least.

But what is this ‘is’ doing there? I guess it could be the subject but then the word order seems super weird. Is it perhaps a typo?

Thanks :)

[u/Nathanuss]

I’d say it just means “he”. Agrees with gahausjands too.

[u/Despoteskaidoulos → u/Nathanuss]

That would make sense but I find it very weird that it breaks up “gahausjands stibnos ize”. Are there other examples of this kind of word order?

[u/Nathanuss → u/Despoteskaidoulos]

without looking this up, I highly assume so. There’s no reason to say that this doesn’t work, and it doesn’t feel weird -at least to me- from a Sprachgefühl sorta perspective. I assume that sentence is taken from the Bible which for the most part follows the koine Greek closely, so it might be a Greek thing?

[u/joostwinter → u/Nathanuss]

It's not from Ulfilas' Bible, apparently. There are 0 results for "gahausjands is" in the Gothic Bible.

[u/Despoteskaidoulos → u/Nathanuss]

No, it is just an exercise from Lambdin’s book, chapter 10 exercise D.5.

[u/AdZealousideal9914 → u/Despoteskaidoulos]

Yes, it must be something like "He, hearing their voices..." or in more idiomatic English "When he hears their voices..." The construction is similar to John 16:8 𐌾𐌰𐌷 𐌵𐌹𐌼𐌰𐌽𐌳𐍃 𐌹𐍃 𐌲𐌰𐍃𐌰𐌺𐌹𐌸 𐌸𐍉 𐌼𐌰𐌽𐌰𐍃𐌴𐌸 𐌱𐌹 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐍅𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌷𐍄 𐌾𐌰𐌷 𐌱𐌹 𐌲𐌰𐍂𐌰𐌹𐌷𐍄𐌹𐌸𐌰 𐌾𐌰𐌷 𐌱𐌹 𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌿𐌰 (jah qimands is gasakiþ þo manaseþ bi frawaurht jah bi garaihtiþa jah bi staua) "And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment" (NIV). Here there is also a participle followed by 𐌹𐍃 acting as the participle's subject.

[u/AdZealousideal9914 → u/AdZealousideal9914]

Though now that I think about it, in John 16:8 𐌹𐍃 could also just be the subject of 𐌲𐌰𐍃𐌰𐌺𐌹𐌸...

[u/Despoteskaidoulos → u/AdZealousideal9914]

I would also think that but I’m no expert of course. The word order in my example just seems so strange to me. If it would be “gahausjands stibnos ize is atiddja…”, it would make sense to me.

[u/Nathanuss → u/Despoteskaidoulos]

it’s the beauty of free word order. idk how long you’ve been studying gothic for, but u get used to the sentence structure through enough exposure. if u want to read less Greek syntax having gothic, Id recommend checking out the codex bononiensis.

[u/arglwydes]

It's definitely 'he', but the word order feels a bit atypical to me. Looking it up on Wulfila.be, there aren't any instances of gahausjands is, but there are three of is gahausjands.

There's another verse that has jah qimands is gasakiþ þo manaseþ, but is is preceding a finite verb after following the present progressive so it feels a bit less confusing.