Vandalic

Vandalic is an extinct East Germanic language that was spoken by the Vandals, a Germanic people who migrated from Central Europe toward Iberia and finally North Africa in late antiquity. It is poorly attested, with a small corpus preserved mainly in personal names and a few phrases cited in classical sources.

Classification and relatives: Vandalic belongs to the East Germanic branch of the Germanic languages, closely related to Gothic and Burgundian. Its long-term development is largely inferred from comparison with these languages, and it likely shared many phonological and morphological features typical of East Germanic tongues. Historical names such as Gunderic and Genseric are preserved in Latin sources as Vandalic rulers, illustrating the language’s presence in historical records.

Attestation and evidence: The evidence for Vandalic is fragmentary. The surviving material consists largely of names of people and places recorded in Latin or Greek writings, and only a handful of phrases. No extensive continuous text survives, and most linguistic conclusions rely on the comparative method with Gothic and related languages.

Historical context: The Vandals established a kingdom in North Africa after crossing into Roman territory around 429 CE. Latin served as the official language in administration and daily life, and Vandalic gradually declined as Romans, Berbers, and other groups became dominant. The language likely became extinct in the early medieval period, though the exact timing is uncertain.

Linguistic character: Due to the data scarcity, precise phonology and grammar are uncertain. Vandalic is generally reconstructed as an East Germanic language with inflectional morphology and a lexicon drawn from shared Germanic roots, with some proper names preserved in historical records.