The Gothic alphabet is an alphabet for writing the Gothic language, created in the 4th century by Ulfilas (or Wulfila) for the purpose of translating the Christian Bible.

The alphabet is essentially an uncial form of the Greek alphabet, with a few additional letters to account for Gothic phonology: Latin F, two Runic letters to distinguish the /j/ and /w/ glides from vocalic /i/ and /u/, and the ƕair letter to express the Gothic labiovelar.

Ulfilas is thought to have consciously chosen to avoid the use of the older Runic alphabet for this purpose, as it was heavily connected with heathen beliefs and customs. Also, the Greek-based script probably helped to integrate the Gothic nation into the dominant Greco-Roman culture around the Black Sea. The individual letters, however, still bear names derived from those of their Runic equivalents.

In past centuries, some authors asserted that Greek-like letters were already in use among Germanic tribes long before Ulfilas. Johannes Aventinus (c. 1525) even ascribed them to the mythical progenitor Tuisto, claiming the Greeks had really stolen the idea from them, and not the Phoenicians. Such theories enjoy no scholarly support today, as all available evidence traces the development of alphabetic writing to the Middle East, although there is some testimony by classical Roman sources, as well as a few assorted tombstones, indicating that Greek letters were sometimes used in Germany, in addition to Gaul, by the time of Julius Caesar (1st century BC).

Lisa Nakamura is Director and Professor of Asian American Studies Program at the Institute of Communication Research at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Lisa Nakamura earned a B.A. from Reed College and a Ph.D. in English from the Graduate Center at City University of New York. She is a professor of Media and Cinema Studies; professor of Asian American Studies; and professor of Gender and Women’s Studies. She is a member of the editorial board of the “Journal of Asian American Studies, Communication” and “Critical/Cultural Studies,” “Games and Culture,” and “New Media and Society.”

Nakamura is the Director of the Asian American Studies Program, Professor in the Institute of Communication Research and Media Studies Program and Professor of Asian American Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. Her main areas of contribution are in interrogating the racial/ethnic assumptions embedded in the representations of race in digital media, particularly within gaming cultures. She is the author of “Digitizing Race: Visual Cultures of the Internet”, “Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identify on the Internet,” and is co-editor of “Race in Cyberspace.” She has also published articles in “Critical Studies in Media Communication,” “PMLA,” “Cinema Journal,” “The Women’s Review of Books,” Camera Obscura,” and the Iowa Journal of Cultural Studies.” Currently Nakamura is working on a new monograph on Massively Multiplayer Online Role playing games, the transnational racialized labor, and avatarial capital in a “postracial” world. And currently she teaches courses on Asian Americans and media as well as advanced courses on new media criticism, history, and theory.