Extinct Germanic language spoken by the Goth s.
Its records antedate those of other Germanic languages by about four centuries. Best known from a translation of the Bible into Gothic in AD 350, it died out among the Ostrogoth s after the fall of their kingdom in Italy in the 6th century and among the Visigoth s around the time of the Arab conquest in 711. It persisted longer in the Crimea, where a form of Gothic was spoken as late as the 16th century.